Different Minds
by xXxAnInspiredWriterxXx
Summary: Santana is the new girl at McKinley and there is something different about her. She's known Quinn all her life so Quinn knows what's wrong but Brittany is intrigued to find out.
1. New Girl

One: New Girl

"Everybody, we have a new student joining us today..." Mr Schue introduced and everyone looked up from their work to see Mr Schue standing with his arm round a young girl who wore jeans, a blue t-shirt and a black jacket, "Her name is Santana Lopez and she has just moved here from Lima Heights Adjacent..."

"You said it wrong," Santana pointed out to him straight away.

"Sorry about that," Mr Schue smiled, "Now, Santana isn't like the rest of us but I hope that you'll all make her feel welcome. Now, you already know Quinn is that true?" Santana nodded and smiled over at Quinn who was chewing on the end of her pen, "So, we'll sit you next to her for now." Santana went to say something but he interrupted, "And we will also sort your timetable out later." Mr Schue led Santana over to Quinn's desk and got her sat down next to the blonde.

"Hey babe," Quinn greeted with a smile, "Enjoying school so far?" Santana just managed a nod as she twiddled her thumbs. Quinn's mom had been good friends with Mrs Lopez for a long time and as Santana was different from everyone else, Quinn was made to take care of her. The two girls had become good friends and Santana was pleased when she soon found out that she'd be going to the same school as Quinn. All her life, she'd been to a school for children who had problems but her mom wanted her to try being in a normal school, she thought that the school Quinn went to would be just fine, "Missing your old school, I suppose?"

"My old school was awesome," Santana told her as she lined up her rulers and pencils at the end of the desk, "The teachers were really nice."

"Well, I can assure you," Quinn smiled, "The teachers here are really nice as well; you don't have to worry about that. Mr Schue especially,"

"He said that his name was Mr Schuester,"

"He lets us call him Mr Schue for short," Quinn told her, "He's cool like that."

"Quinn!" Brittany bounded over in excitement and wrapped her long, skinny arms round Quinn's neck. Santana cowered away from the stranger and mumbled something, Quinn noticed and held a finger to her lips, "What?"

"Lower your voice," Quinn corrected and pushed Brittany away from her, "This is Santana Lopez, she's been my best friend ever since we were little." Brittany smiled and waved at Santana but she didn't say anything, "San, this is Brittany. She's nice, don't worry." Santana mumbled something as she twiddled with the thumbs again.

"Pardon?" Brittany said in confusion.

"I'm Santana," Santana said quietly, looking up at Brittany before looking back down at the floor.

"I...I know that," Brittany whispered, "Do you need any help with work?"

"Santana's brilliant at Spanish," Quinn answered for her, "She's fluent in the language so..." Brittany nodded.

"Do you want me to show you round then?" Brittany offered, trying her best to be nice to Quinn's friend.

"Quinn's going to show me round," Santana whispered, "I...I don't know you..."

"Brittany's nice sweetie," Quinn rubbed Santana's arm gently, "I know she seemed a bit loud at first but she's really nice, she can tag along with us yeah?" Santana nodded at Quinn's words, "You can tag along Britt; San doesn't mind."

"Sure," Brittany smiled and went back to her seat; her eyes set curiously on the new girl the whole time.


	2. Bumping into Karofsky

Two: Bumping into Karofsky

"Hey Quinn," Brittany walked up to Quinn in the middle of the corridor, "Where's your friend?" Quinn turned from her locker and smiled at Brittany. Santana had to go and have a chat with Principal Figgins about how her first day had gone.

"With Principal Figgins," Quinn pointed out, "Did you hear Rachel babble on during Spanish? God, she's so annoying." Brittany nodded in agreement, "She could have given us all a black eye with that snoz!" They were interrupted by Puck walking over and running his fingers along Quinn's neck before kissing her cheek, "Hey baby, what was that for?"

"You look beautiful," Puck chuckled, "Your friend's met Karofsky."

"What?" Quinn's smile dropped, "God, where is she?"

"Outside the choir room," Quinn shoved Puck away quickly and raced off down the corridors in a hurry, not even acknowledging Brittany on the way. Puck and Brittany exchanged glances before shrugging their shoulders.

"Quinn's different around Santana, isn't she?" Brittany asked quietly.

"Who?" Puck asked before clicking what Brittany was on about, "Oh yeah, she is but...Santana's her best friend."

"She doesn't seem to make fun of anyone around her," Puck nodded and headed off in the other direction, leaving Brittany on her own. She bit her lip nervously, pondering on whether to go and find Quinn to see if she needed any help with Santana but Santana seemed quite off with her during Spanish and she wasn't sure if she liked her or not. She headed off in the direction of where Quinn went anyway and saw her trying to pick a fight with Karofsky.

"Just, leave her alone!" Quinn yelled and pointed her finger at the jock, "She never did anything to you!"

"Cool it blondie," Karofsky scoffed. Quinn gave him a hard shove before kneeling at Santana's side. Santana was sitting on the floor, close to the wall, head in her knees, rocking back and forth, letting out small, gentle whimpers. She flinched once Quinn touched her but she soon realised who it was.

"Hey sweetie, are you okay?" Quinn asked her gently; stroking at her long, dark hair. Santana didn't answer, "Sweetie, it's me, are you okay?"

"What's wrong with her?" Brittany asked; walking over, "Did she get slushied or something?"

"No, Karofsky was being his usual loud self right near her," Quinn sighed, "She can't stand loud noises; it gets too much for her and she gets upset. He's gone now San, all gone." Santana slowly looked up, keeping her hands on her head and she gulped nervously looking around for any sign of Karofsky, "He's like that to everyone, he is. He isn't very nice. Now, I...I need to go to my locker..." she turned to Brittany, "Will you sit with her please?"

"Um...sure," Brittany nodded nervously.

"Okay San, I need to go to my locker but Brittany's going to sit with you okay? She's very nice, don't worry,"

"How long will you be?" Santana questioned her.

"Two minutes, if I'm longer than I'll allow you to slap my hand,"

"How long is two minutes?"

"Not long at all; Brittany will take care of you,"

"I'm not allowed to be left with strangers; Brittany's a stranger isn't she?" Quinn sighed and looked at Brittany once more.

"Come with me then," Quinn nudged Santana's shoulder and helped her up from the floor. Santana seemed happier now that she was with Quinn and followed her to her locker, Brittany walking close behind, "Hold this for me babe," Quinn handed Santana a text book whilst she opened her locker up. She soon started laughing though, "What's so funny?"

"Your locker is really messy,"

"I know, terrible isn't it?" Quinn sighed and shook her head, "You'll have to tidy it for me."

"You should put your math books together and stand them up," Quinn smiled and took the text book from Santana, stuffing it into her locker but arranging it neatly.

"How's that?"

"Still messy," she laughed.

"Ah, we don't have time now but I promise you that when we do, you can tidy my locker for me," Quinn promised and Santana nodded, "Right; let's have a look at your timetable," Santana opened up her backpack and pulled out a plastic folder that held her timetable, "Lucky bitch..." Santana gasped, "Sorry, you are lucky though. You have math with Lisa."

"I don't know Lisa,"

"She's nice, you'll love her," Quinn said and scanned the rest of her timetable whilst Brittany just watched, "And that's in Room 4."

"How do you know her?" Santana questioned blankly.

"I went to her once," Quinn mentioned, "When I needed help with my Spanish work; she helps most people, you'll really like her,"

"She helped me with my English once," Brittany added with a smile as Quinn shut her locker door shut.

"If you go, I'll tidy out my locker," Quinn promised Santana who nodded, "Great, do you want me to walk you there?" she nodded again and Quinn placed an arm round her shoulder, "Britt, tell Mr Roberts where I am please," Brittany said that she would as Quinn headed off to Room 4 with Santana, "Have you got everything?" Santana pulled out a book from her bag and showed it to her, "Good."

Lisa was already in there, sitting at a desk at the back. She smiled once she saw Quinn and gestured for the two girls to come in. Santana looked quite nervous and shuffled her way towards Lisa.

"This is Santana," Quinn smiled, "She has math with you now apparently."

"Indeed she does, thanks Quinn,"

"Remember to tidy your locker," Santana told Quinn who nodded and gave her a small high five.

"I'll be off now babe," Quinn rubbed Santana's back, "See you at lunch yeah?" Santana nodded and smiled as Quinn headed off to her own class. Brittany had told Mr Roberts where she was as well as saved her a seat, "Thanks Britt."

"No problem."

Brittany was intrigued by Santana but she didn't want to ask Quinn, she didn't want to sound rude and she certainly didn't want to upset Santana by asking her either. She wanted to be friends with her but how could she when Santana hardly spoke to her?


	3. Cheerio's Practice

Three: Cheerio's Practice

It was Cheerio's practice after school that day and Brittany walked out onto the bleachers to see all of the Cheerio's out on the field, doing laps. Coach Sylvester wasn't there yet but Quinn was sitting up on the benches with Santana so Brittany headed over quickly before Sue showed up.

"Hello," Brittany smiled at Santana who continued drawing in her sketch pad, "Is she on the Cheerio's?"

"No, but her mom's working late today so she's coming home with me so she's going to watch us practise, are you going to be okay San?" Santana nodded and continued drawing, "You just sit and draw and I don't want you wandering off. If you get hungry, then I have a packet of chips in my bag. Just help yourself, I'll be down on the field," Santana didn't answer and kept drawing, "Alright sweetie," Quinn giggled and gestured for Brittany to follow her, "There's no getting an answer out of her when she's drawing."

"Is she good at drawing?"

"Amazing," Quinn smiled.

"Quinn..." Brittany took a deep breath, deciding to finally ask Quinn, "What's exactly wrong with Santana? Well, she isn't like everyone else, is she? Mr Schue even said that," Quinn looked at her, shocked, "Sorry, I don't mean to sound rude."

"I thought you knew," Brittany shook her head, "She has Autism."

"What's that?" Brittany shrugged and Quinn's eyes went wide, "Sorry."

"Autism is kind of like a mental illness," Quinn explained, "It is hard to explain but she...she gets quite sensitive of loud noises and she likes her space, she's fine with me because I've been her friend and kind of like a big sister to her for years now. That's why she got scared with Karofsky, the rocking helped her calm down. Autistic people also like routine and structure, it's a lot to deal with it but...San's harmless, she's lovely."

"I'm trying to be her friend; she doesn't talk to me,"

"Give her time, she gets quite shy and scared around new people and you'll soon do something that makes her want to start talking to you. Trust me,"

"Hey Fabray," Madison walked over, hands on her hips, "What's your retarded friend doing here?"

"She isn't retarded Madison," Quinn said, "She has Autism so shut up alright?" Meanwhile, Santana had finished her drawing and had rushed down to show Quinn her recent masterpiece, "Hey babe; you okay?" Quinn asked.

"Hey retard," Madison scoffed. Quinn went to say something but Santana suddenly threw her pencil at Madison, "Hey!"

"San, nice one," Quinn high fived Santana, "Sorry Madison but you had that coming."

"Please," Madison scoffed once again and folded her arms across her chest, "It's just a pencil, besides it barely touched me."

"You seemed quite annoyed when she threw it," Brittany pointed out. Madison pursed her lips together and shoved Santana hard so she fell to the ground. Brittany helped her up as Quinn went mad and lunged at Madison, "You're bleeding," Brittany pointed out to Santana who nodded with tears in her eyes. Brittany eyed the sketchpad on the ground and picked it up, dusting the dirt off of it before kneeling down in front of Santana to examine her bleeding hand.

"Don't ever touch her again!" Quinn screamed.

"Q!" Quinn stopped at the sound of Coach Sylvester calling to her, "Madison!" The two girls stopped fighting and stormed off across the field. Santana went to follow but Brittany held her back and began mopping up her bleeding hand. Santana winced and tried to pull away, not liking the feel of Brittany touching her.

"I won't hurt," Brittany calmed and continued to gently dab at her hand.

"How long will Quinn be?"

"Um..." Brittany looked up; alarmed to hear the Latina talking full sentences to her for once, "I...I don't know."

"Will she be long?"

"I'm not sure,"

"Two minutes like last time?"

"I...I don't know," Brittany couldn't help but feel annoyed at the questions but she kept her calm.

"Why don't you know?" Santana then eyed the muddy sketchpad in Brittany's hand, "My sketchpad!"

"Sorry," Brittany whispered, "You dropped it when Madison pushed you," Brittany stated the obvious and sighed deeply.

"Who's Quinn talking to?" Santana whimpered.

"Coach Sylvester, she's the cheerleading coach,"

"Will she be back soon?" Brittany nodded, "How long is soon?"

"It'll be fine," Brittany reassured her, "I can get you a new sketchpad if you want."

"My drawings?" Santana whined.

"You can do some new drawings; you enjoy it, don't you?" Santana nodded, "Or I can try and wash this one off for you," Santana nodded; a smile spreading across her face. Quinn soon came back over from talking to Coach Sylvester and smiled once she saw how happy Santana seemed, "Everything okay?" Brittany asked.

"Yeah, she just gave us a chat on how young ladies like us shouldn't fight especially whilst wearing our uniforms," Quinn explained and wrapped her arms round Santana, "Hey San; is Brittany looking after you?"

"She's going to wash my sketchpad," Santana told her.

"I think you're the one who needs washing first," Brittany joked examining her hand. It'd stopped bleeding but she was still a little muddy, "That should do it," Brittany smiled and stood back up, "Does it hurt?" Santana shook her head, "Good."

"Thank you," Quinn mouthed at Brittany and gave her a thumbs up. Santana kept looking at her hand, "It's fine sweetie, Brittany's got rid of the blood."

"These are amazing," Brittany smiled as she began flicking through the half muddy sketchpad, "You drew these?"

"All of them," Santana said proudly.

"They're brilliant; there isn't too much mud so it'll be able to wash off."

"Thank you," she whispered.

"Looks like you found a new friend," Quinn winked at Brittany who closed the sketchpad and handed it back to Santana, "Now San, I promise you that Brittany will wash that for you straight after practice."

"When will that be?"

"In exactly half an hour," Quinn told her and showed her watch to Santana, "When the big hand reaches the six, got it?" Santana nodded, "Then Brittany will give your sketchpad a wash and we can go home. Right now though, you need to go and sit back down and wait for me yeah?" Santana nodded, "Alright, see you in a bit."

"Bye Brittany," Santana smiled and ran back off to her seat.

"Thanks for that," Quinn told Brittany.

"Don't mention it; I like helping people,"

"Yeah but..." Quinn paused, "Well you just made Santana really happy, that's all."


	4. Loud Noises

Four: Loud Noises

"Where's Santana?" Brittany asked Quinn once she sat down at her table, slamming her lunch tray down in front of her. Quinn had her lunch but she wasn't eating; instead she was in the middle of texting Puck who'd been off all day with an apparent stomach bug. Most people were convinced that he'd just skipped though.

"Um..." Quinn finished off texting and looked up at Brittany, "She's probably wandering around school; talking to herself."

"What do you mean?"

"She does that, Lisa is busy on Wednesdays so Room 4 isn't available to work in. If she isn't with me, then she's usually walking around on her own. I might go and find her after lunch though, see if she's okay."

"It's your birthday soon," Brittany smiled and Quinn nodded, "What are you doing for it?"

"I might just have a small party. I want to invite San but I don't want people to get too loud for her or anything."

"Can't you not invite her?"

"She's my best friend, I'm going to invite her Brittany," Quinn snapped, "I'll just have to warn people."

"I might go and look for her," Brittany said and stood up; taking a packet of chips with her. Quinn nodded and sent one last text before shoving the remains of her sandwich in her mouth and following Brittany out of the canteen, "Hey Finn; have you seen San?" Brittany asked as Finn passed by.

"She was near the choir room last time I saw her," Finn said before hurrying off to football practice. Quinn nudged Brittany's shoulder as the two of them headed off. As they passed the choir room, they heard loud noises coming from it, the banging of drums and the laughter of boys. Quinn sighed and walked straight in to see the whole room a complete mess.

"What the hell?" Brittany asked, standing near the door. Quinn dropped her bag and walked over to the chairs where the Latina sat, arms wrapped round her legs protectively, rocking slowly and whimpering. When she looked up, Brittany could see that there were tears in her eyes.

"Santana, sweetie," Quinn whispered sweetly going over to her friend, "Are you okay? Is everything okay?" Santana looked up at the drum kit that someone was banging hard and Quinn could tell that the noise was bothering her, "Are you going to come with me?" Quinn asked, attempting to get Santana up, "Brittany's here, see," Santana looked and saw Brittany standing by the door, "are you going to come with us? Get away from all this noise."

"Make them stop,"

"I can't make them stop babe, they won't listen,"

"They're not deaf,"

"Why don't you dance with them?" Quinn encouraged and grabbed hold of Santana's wrists, "Come on; have a dance," Santana shook her head, "Why?"

"I want them to stop,"

"I know but..." Quinn sighed and pulled away from Santana before sticking her fingers in her mouth and doing a loud, long whistle. They all stopped what they were doing and stared at her, "thank you; now that I have your attention, can you all leave?"

"You're not the boss of us blondie," one tall one spat at Quinn.

"Do as she says," Brittany told them. Quinn looked fierce at this point and the boys immediately dropped the drum sticks and everything else before stomping out.

"They've stopped now babe," Quinn stated to Santana, "They've stopped."

"You're wearing your Avril Lavigne perfume," Santana told her.

"I am indeed," Quinn smiled and stroked her hair, "You like the smell of that, don't you?" she nodded, "I might let you borrow it when you come round my house for my birthday party."

"I'm invited?"

"Course you are," Quinn said, "Why wouldn't you be?"

"Is it on Saturday?" Quinn shook her head, "Your last party was on Saturday 27th of January. What day is this party on?"

"That wasn't a birthday party though, was it? And this party is going to be on a Friday night, the 18th."

"They probably made enough noise for Australia to hear them," Brittany laughed walking over and Quinn nodded at her.

"Australia, that's way too far?" Santana mentioned.

"Brittany didn't really mean that," Quinn whispered in her ear.

"Then why did she say it?"

"Because she was just being silly, that's what Brittany does." Brittany stuck her tongue out and crossed her eyes, making Quinn and Santana both laugh at her, "Come on; what do you want to do? We have fifteen minutes until our next class."

"Can we sing? Just the three of us,"

"Course we can, any particular song?"

"Dancing Queen; I like Abba."

"Sure sweetie; seeing as you know all the words to that song...come on, are you going to sing it as a duet with Britt?" Santana shook her head, "Why not?"

"Both of you,"

"Alright, come on then."


	5. During Spanish Class

Five: During Spanish Class

"We're late," Santana sighed.

"I know," Lisa replied, "But you needed to finish your math work; we're only late by a few minutes though."

"I'm never late Lisa,"

"You'll be fine; don't worry."

"I'm going to Quinn's party on Friday the 18th of October" Santana smiled up at Lisa who was walking her down the corridors, "She invited me; I can't wait," Lisa smiled and patted her on the back as they arrived outside the Spanish classroom, "She said that we could have karaoke and dancing."

"You will be tired, won't you?" Lisa joked and Santana nodded, "Do you want me to come in with you?"

"I'm good; I know what to say to Mr Schue, I have it rehearsed."

"Alright," Lisa nodded, "I'll see you later; have fun in Spanish." Santana pushed the door open and walked in. She was about to tell Mr Schue the reason why she was late but he let it go and had her sit down next to Quinn.

"Hey babe," Quinn greeted patting the space next to her, "I didn't think you were coming."

"I needed to finish off my math work, I hate math," she complained as she sat down, "You have blue eyes and blonde hair," she said; examining Quinn, "And you always wear that golden cross necklace and that Avril Lavigne perfume. It smells nice."

"I do indeed," Quinn said; looking impressed, "Have you been drawing me?" Santana nodded proudly, "You can show me later; get on with your work though yeah? Come on, you like Spanish."

"Quinn, can I borrow a pen?" Finn asked; coming over and Quinn nodded, rummaging through her bag for a pen, "Hey San," Finn nodded his head at her but Santana was silent and fiddled with her shirt sleeves, "San?" she didn't talk to him so he just took the pen and walked off.

"What's wrong with Santana?" Brittany leaned over to whisper in Quinn's ear, "She seems upset."

"It's not that," Quinn whispered back, "She just doesn't talk to anyone but me and the teachers...and now you of course."

"How comes?" Quinn wasn't sure what to say to that.

"I don't know," she finally answered and shrugged her shoulders, "They're just people who she knows are nice and she can trust them I guess."

"You always use that pen," Santana suddenly said causing Quinn to swivel round in her seat. She saw that Santana was pointing at the red pen covered in yellow smiley faces that Quinn was writing with, "I like it."

"Thanks," Quinn smiled at her friend and looked down at the pen, "Do you want it?"

"Use for the lesson," Santana nodded and took the pen from her.

"No silly, to keep. It's yours from now on," Santana grinned from ear to ear as she inspected the pen, "I have plenty of other pens and look, it writes in lots of different colours."

"Red!" Santana yelled with excitement causing everyone to stare and Mr Schue to just laugh and shake his head.

"Indoor voice sweetie," Quinn giggled, "Yeah, your favourite colour is red isn't it?" Santana nodded, "You can have it; I promise you, it's okay."

"No thank you," Santana shook her head, "I'll just use it for this lesson."

"Sure?" Santana nodded as she began writing her name in her book, "You're being very neat," Quinn giggled as she watched her.

"Lisa said that my writing has improved since when I first arrived," Quinn nodded in agreement; seeing that it had done, "Are we doing karaoke at your party Quinn? And dancing, I like dancing. When I was five years old and the day was also a Friday, I danced to Abba and my dad said that I was really good. I was good though, I like dancing."

"You remember the day?" Quinn questioned her.

"Yeah," she nodded, "I have it written down in my notebook on the third page, I'll show you,"

"No it's fine," Quinn patted her shoulder, "You get on with the work; show me another time though."

"But I can show you now; I have the notebook in my bag,"

"Yeah but you need to do your work so show me another time, I do want to see it," Santana left it and put her bag back down before going to get started on her work once again.

"I'm excited for your party Quinn," Santana smiled at the blonde who smiled back.

"Glad to hear it."


	6. Quinn's Birthday Party

Six: Quinn's Birthday Party

Santana had gone over early for Quinn's birthday party so Quinn could do her hair and make-up. Quinn had her sat down on a chair in front of the mirror whilst she stood behind, untying her ponytail and gently brushing at her dark hair.

"What time were you born Quinn?" Santana asked as Quinn continued brushing.

"Um...I think it was two in the afternoon," Quinn said deep in thought as she couldn't remember what time her mother had told her, "Why?"

"So..." Santana had a think, "It was your birthday exactly three hours and a half ago, right?"

"Right," Quinn nodded and laughed, "How are we doing your hair then missy?"

"All curly and wavy like yours is," Santana answered straight away and turned round to look at Quinn's hair that was hanging loosely round her shoulders. She'd curled the ends and held it together with clips and Santana had loved it.

"Like mine?" Quinn asked; loving how Santana tended to copy her at times.

"Yeah, don't forget the clips," Santana nodded, "Am I fat Quinn?"

"Course not, why do you ask that?" Santana had never asked Quinn questions like that before and it scared her straight away when she said it.

"Some boys at school said I was," Santana pouted as she scratched at her arm.

"Nah, you're as skinny as a twig," Quinn giggled and removed Santana's hand from her arm to stop her from scratching. She then plugged the curlers in and began on the first strand of Santana's hair.

"I'm not a twig!" Santana laughed, laughing as Quinn tickled her.

"Not literally," Quinn carried on curling her hair, "I like your dress; very pretty."

"Thanks, I like it too. You're doing my hair wrong," she whined and pulled away from Quinn. Quinn quickly held the curlers at arm's length so she wouldn't burn herself or Santana, "You only have the ends curled; I want that too."

"Ah, sorry babe; shall I start over?" she nodded, "Alright; can we keep this strand like this though because I can't uncurl it, sorry about that."

"S'okay," she mumbled and sat back down, allowing Quinn to carry on, doing it the way Santana wanted it done, "Am I going to wear make-up?" Santana asked, reaching out to take a tube of lipstick from the dresser.

"Yes you are, you're going to look beautiful when I am done with you, better than me and that isn't allowed because I'm supposed to be the birthday girl,"

"Put some lipstick on,"

"Cheeky devil, I'm already wearing some," Santana just laughed, "Sorry; did I burn you then?" she nodded and rubbed at her neck, "Sorry baby; I wasn't watching what I was doing, I'm almost done with your hair now and then we will put the clips in and get started on your make-up. Do you want to borrow some of my Avril Lavigne perfume?" she nodded and smiled, "Alright; I'll allow you too, only really special people are allowed to use that."

"Is Brittany coming?"

"Indeed she is."

Quinn finished off doing Santana's hair and put the clips in neatly; in the exact same places as her. She then squirted a tiny bit of perfume onto her wrists and neck before applying the make-up. Santana was pleased once she'd finished and clapped her hands together, giving Quinn a huge hug. People began arriving around seven so until then, Quinn had Santana do the job of helping her and her mom set up.

"Do you fancy a bit of karaoke then?" Quinn asked poking Santana in the arm. The whole of the Glee Club had been invited and Santana was sitting in between Quinn and Brittany. She shook her head, "Why not? You were really excited about that and I got it set up just for you."

"I can't sing and everyone's here," she pouted fiddling with her hair.

"It doesn't matter if you can't sing; I don't think I'm that good myself, it's just for fun," Santana shook her head again, "tell you what then yeah? How about me and you sing together, against Brittany."

"Two against one," Brittany sat up straight, "So not fair."

"Sounds good," Santana nodded as Quinn gave her a high five.

"You can choose the song; I have Abba," Santana nodded as Quinn went to turn on the karaoke and grab the microphones. She handed the blue one to Brittany whilst she kept hold of the red one, knowing how much Santana liked the colour, "What song are we going to have then?"

"Can we have dancing queen?" Quinn nodded and flicked to the song on the TV screen, "So, we are the little red person on the left."

"Oh god," Kurt said as he picked a chip from the bowl, "Are we seriously having a singing competition?"

"Isn't that a little lame sweetie?" Puck asked his girlfriend, "I mean; aren't you supposed to drink booze at a house party."

"San wanted to sing karaoke so that is what we are doing," Puck left it at that as everyone took their seats on the couch.

"Well, I on the other hand could do with warming up my vocal chords," Rachel said.

"Later Rachel," Quinn sighed, "Let San have a couple of go's first, then you can sing whatever you want," Quinn got Santana up with her and Brittany stood at the other end of the room, "Okay San, I don't know this song very well so you are going to have to lead me."

"When do we sing?"

"When the red words flash up at the bottom of the screen, it's Brittany's turn first though," Santana nodded and waited whilst Brittany started singing. She was really good and didn't feel shy about it at all, she belted it and even did some dance moves making Santana laugh, "Our turn," Quinn had to snap Santana out of her trance. She began singing with Santana first off who was really quiet and then she soon shut up and allowed Santana to do it on her own, "Whoo, nice one," Quinn smiled at her once it was Brittany's turn again.

"You didn't sing," Santana told her.

"You don't need me; you did a great job on your own."

Brittany ended up winning but Quinn made Santana feel better by telling her that the blonde had ended up cheating halfway through. They let Rachel and Finn do a romantic duet together next which everyone said was too soppy and just stopped listening to them.

"You okay?" Quinn asked Santana as she rested her head on her shoulder. She nodded, "You're getting tired, I can tell."

"Little bit, can I give you your present now?"

"We agreed to do presents later; I told you that earlier,"

"Please," Quinn hesitated but gave in and nodded, "Yay!"

"Santana wants me to open her present," Quinn told Brittany as the Latina raced to get it.

"Guys," Brittany stopped the singing and called everyone over, "Quinn's going to open presents."

"This one's from me," Santana said as she climbed back onto the couch next to Quinn, "Open it," Quinn placed an arm round her shoulder and opened up the card, smiling a little once she saw that Santana had spelt birthday wrong. She then opened the present that was of course, wrapped in red paper and saw that it was the drawing that Santana had done of her in a red photo frame, "It's you."

"It's brilliant," Quinn told her, "You got my hair right and everything; did you really draw this?" Santana nodded proudly as Quinn kissed her cheek, "Aw, thank you babe, I love it. It's the best present that I have ever gotten."

"You can hang it by your bed,"

"I think I'll do that," Quinn promised her, "Thank you very much."

"You're my bestest friend,"

"Yeah," Quinn grinned, "You're mine too."


	7. Trip to the Mall

Seven: Trip to the Mall

"I've finished my homework," Santana said to her mother once she'd done, "It was pretty easy," her mom didn't look too bothered but continued to read to her five year old brother Felix who'd been feeling under the weather all morning and was resting his head on his mothers stomach. Aletta was five months pregnant with her third child and Santana and Felix were both looking forward to having a little brother or sister. Her dad soon walked in, throwing a pair of keys onto the coffee table, "Dad; I'm going to the mall with Quinn today."

"That's great honey," Emilio kissed his daughters head and tapped her nose, "I have a present for you; come and see," Santana smiled and left her homework on the coffee table before following her dad into the hallway. He reached into his bag and pulled out a stuffed monkey with a red shirt, "Another to add to your monkey collection."

"I haven't got this one," Santana took it from him; "Now I have sixteen monkey things, including the pictures that I drew."

"What do you say?"

"Thank you," he smiled and ruffled her hair; "Quinn's picking me up at one o'clock."

"Ah," he nodded, "the usual time then eh?"

"I'm all ready; I've done my homework, packed my bag, got dressed and had breakfast," she smiled proudly whilst Emilio chuckled, glancing down at his watch.

"It's only half past ten; you have plenty of time," Santana went to pick up her homework from the coffee table and walked upstairs to her bedroom, placing the new monkey on her bed along with the other stuffed monkeys that her dad had brought her before sticking her homework into her school bag, "Santana; fancy a game of snakes and ladders or something?" Emilio asked; coming into her room, "Wow, your room is very tidy."

"I know where everything is," she said and brought out the board game from under her bed, "That's where I keep the games."

"Do you want to bring it downstairs or play in here?"

"Play in here," she placed the game on the bed and opened it up, "Mommy's reading to Felix," he nodded and sat opposite her as she sorted out everything. The counters had been sorted into colours by Santana and placed in different, plastic bags whilst the game had been folded up, "Oh no!"

"What's happened?" Emilio asked her.

"There's no dice," she climbed off the bed and sorted through the small drawer of her desk, "Found one!"

"My little girl is so organised," he laughed as she came back, "Do you want to go first then?"

"Oh no dad," she shook her head and crossed her legs, "First off, we need to roll the dice to see who gets the biggest number to go first. Youngest rolls first so I will roll and if I get a six and then you roll and get say like a three, I will take my turn first. I'm the red counter, you can be um...blue because you're wearing a blue shirt," he nodded as she handed him a blue counter, "I'll roll first." She rolled the dice and got a four, "Four! You can go next," she handed him the dice and he rolled it and got a two, "Two, that's lower than four so I go first. Is um...four and two equals two right?"

"That's take away honey; you need to go the other way."

"So...six, yeah?" he nodded. Santana had never been good at math but she'd been told to practice whenever she could and now she just did math whenever, "I got a one so I move one space forwards, your turn Dad."

"Four,"

"Dad, you go up the ladder. You're in the lead now."

Santana ended up winning in the end and by the time, they'd played a couple of games, Quinn had arrived to pick her up. Santana already had everything ready and Emilio spoke with Quinn whilst she went to get her bag.

"Got everything?" Quinn asked and she nodded, "You may need a coat sweetie, it's quite cold outside,"

"Dad, where's my coat?" Santana whispered to him.

"Is it in your room?"

"Ah, yeah," she handed Quinn her bag and quickly raced back upstairs, finding her coat hanging on the back of her door, "Got it!" she called, coming back downstairs, "Can we go to 'Jenny's Cafe' for lunch Quinn? We always go there,"

"Course we can," she smiled and helped Santana get her coat on, "Do you want it zipped up or not?" she shook her head, "alright; see you later Mr Lopez."

"Have fun girls," he waved them off. Santana climbed into the passenger seat of the car whilst Quinn made sure that she had her seatbelt on before driving off. Santana and Quinn often went to the mall together, having lunch in exactly the same place.

"Right, are you hungry?" Quinn asked Santana once they arrived, "We can have lunch first and then we can do some shopping, what do you say?"

"Sounds good," Santana nodded, linking arms with Quinn. Quinn asked for a table for two and they sat down by the window whilst the waitress handed them the menus, "I don't need a menu," Quinn handed her menu back, "I know what I want."

"Already?" Quinn asked.

"I want the ham sandwich with the salad and the chips," Quinn laughed and shook her head at how Santana had the same thing every time.

"Don't want anything different for a change?" Santana shook her head, "Yeah," she scanned the menu over, "I'll have the same," she said and passed the menu to the waitress.

"Drinks?" the woman asked.

"Apple juice," Santana smiled going for the same thing again.

"I'll just have a glass of water," Quinn told her. The waitress nodded and wrote it all down in a notepad before walking off.

"Me and Dad played snakes and ladders this morning," Santana told her, "I won and he brought me a new stuffed monkey to add to my collection; I like monkeys,"

"You're a monkey," Quinn joked with her.

The food came quite quickly and once they'd finished and paid, they headed to the shops. Quinn was dragging Santana into lots of different clothes shops and holding brightly coloured dresses up against her.

"This is a pretty necklace," Santana said; walking towards a jewellery stand, "It has a heart on it."

"It's only five dollars," Quinn exclaimed, "Do you like it?" she nodded, "Come on; I'll buy it for you as a present," Santana thanked her as Quinn went to pay for the necklace as well as a pair of earrings for herself, "Do you want to wear it now?"

"Yeah," she whispered. Quinn turned round and lifted Santana's hair up so she could put the necklace on for her.

"There; that looks nice on you, where are we going now?"

"Put your earrings in,"

"I will when I get home,"

"No put them on now,"

"When I get home; I promise you," Quinn promised her, "Where are we going now? Toy store?" Santana nodded, "Maybe you can be a lovely big sister and see if there's anything for Felix in there," she joked as they entered the toy store.

"Monkeys!" Santana ran straight over to a shelf where they had lots of monkey things, "What's this?" she asked, taking a box of the shelf.

"Let's have a look," Quinn took it from her and read the back of the box, "It's like a model set; you get different models of monkeys and you can paint them and make a little monkey family. It also comes with paints. It could be something to do with your dad." Quinn looked up at the shelf, "There are different ones; tigers, dogs, lions."

"Think you can buy it for me?" Quinn smiled and checked the price of it, "Can you?"

"I dunno San; it's twelve dollars, a little pricey," Santana looked disappointed and hung her head, "Would you use it?" she nodded and Quinn sighed looking back at the box.

"I like it," Santana told her.

"I spoil you," Quinn giggled and playfully whacked her round the head, "How much do I spoil you, eh? Where do you stand?"

"In the middle of the toy store," Santana told her; looking around.

"Listen," Quinn sighed and put it back on the shelf, "I don't have enough with me right now but...I promise that I will get it for you when I can afford it; how does that sound?"

"When will that be?"

"I don't know," she giggled, "But I promise that I will get it for you," Santana nodded, "Come on; let's go and get a milkshake or something."

**Bit of a longer chapter there for you all and you also got an inside look on what Santana's family are like with her. I kind of like how Quinn spoils Santana, lol. Anyway review and I will try and update soon. **


	8. Unwell

Eight: Unwell

Santana sat in Room 4 with six little monkey models lying in front of her on the table. Newspaper was laid out and she had a pallet of different coloured paints sitting next to her. Picking up the smallest monkey model, she painted a small pink nose on the front of its head. Quinn's mom had taken Quinn shopping just the other day and Quinn had gotten the monkey set that Santana had fallen in love with. It was lunchtime and she'd brought it to school so that she could work on it during lunch.

"You can be a little boy monkey called Bobby," she said to herself as she finished off the nose. Quinn had admitted that the kit actually looked quite good, there were six monkey models, a box of paints and even some little cardboard cut outs to use as houses or other leisure places. One of them, Santana had set up after painting a little bed on it. She adored Art so was careful with her painting and she even gave them their own character, "And you can like art, like me."

"Quinn told me that you were in here," Santana gasped and turned round as Brittany entered the room. She remained silent and turned back round to carry on with her painting, "San?"

"Busy," Santana mumbled without turning round.

"What are you doing?" Santana was silent so Brittany shut the door and walked over, "wow, who's this cute little guy?" she asked, picking up the monkey that Santana had begun painting.

"No!" Santana screamed and threw down her paintbrush, "You ruined it now! You weren't supposed to touch!"

"I'm sorry," Brittany put it back on the paper, "Just carry on; its fine."

"No! It's all ruined!"

"It's okay," Brittany soothed and attempted to try and cheer her up, "I didn't know you could paint," Santana faintly nodded and crossed her arms, "It isn't ruined San; you can carry on, what do you have to do?"

"Paint these models, they're monkeys. Quinn brought it for me,"

"Sounds good, do you like monkeys then?" Santana just nodded, "Are they your favourite animal?" she nodded again and sat back down in her chair, picking up her paintbrush, "what colour are you going use next?"

"Blue for his eyes and then brown for his face," the door soon opened once again and Quinn walked in; pleased to see that Brittany and Santana were bonding and that Santana was using her new modelling kit.

"Hey babe," Santana greeted Santana and smiled at Brittany, "Hey Britt; is she doing her painting?" Brittany nodded, "San?" Santana didn't answer, "She's busy," Quinn mouthed at Brittany, "you tend not to get an answer out of her when she's busy with something." Brittany nodded; realising that, "San; have you done your homework?"

"I'm busy," she groaned, "Brittany touched them."

"Did she?" Quinn asked in shock as she walked over to play with Santana's long hair, "Naughty Brittany; did you give her hand a good slap?" she shook her head and suddenly sneezed, "Oh dear, you feeling a bit under the weather?"

"How can you be under the weather when you can't even be on top? Can you?"

"I meant, have you got a cold? Do you feel unwell?" Santana shook her head as Quinn placed the back of her hand on Santana's forehead, "You feel a little warm; you might just be coming down with something, your brother hasn't been well has he?"

"He threw up twice; it was a sort of yellow colour."

"Ew," Quinn poked her in the arm, "That's gross; don't say that." Santana sneezed again, "Have you quite finished?"

"I feel icky," she whined to Quinn.

"Shall I get you to the nurse?"

"But my stuff...I haven't finished yet,"

"We'll sort that out later; come on," Santana nodded and had Quinn help her out the room and along to the nurse's office. Nurse Sue knew Santana quite well but then so did everyone in the school.

"You have a slight fever," Sue told Santana as she sat on the bed with Quinn, "Do you want me to call your parents to come and collect you?"

"I want to stay at school," Santana whined, "I have Art next and I need to finish my painting," Sue sighed and turned to Quinn, "I don't want to go home; I want to stay."

"But you have a fever," Quinn pointed out to her, "We'll tidy up your paints right?" Santana nodded, "Then you can do some more at home, how does that sound? Your dad could help you," Santana nodded again, "Come on; I'll help you tidy up your paints and everything and then take you to your dad."

"I'll give your dad a call," Sue promised as Quinn took Santana back to Room 4. Brittany was in the middle of tidying up the model kit which really upset Santana. She screamed and ran towards Brittany crying.

"What did I do?" Brittany asked.

"You're doing it all wrong," Santana cried, "You're packing it away wrong; it doesn't go like that."

"Babe; come here," Quinn walked towards her, "Brittany was only trying to help; she didn't know, why don't you show her what to do?"

"Too late now; everything's ruined."

"No it isn't, go on," Santana grabbed the box and began putting everything back; the way she wanted it, "Your dad will be here soon so do you want to find your coat and I'll put this away in your bag?" she nodded and went to find her coat at the back of the room, "Sorry about that Britt."

"It's fine," Brittany whispered, "I just didn't know she liked it packed away a certain way."

"It doesn't matter; she's off home now because Sue suggested she goes, are you going to say bye to Brittany San?"

"Bye," Santana whispered as she slipped on her coat, struggling with the zipper.

"Let me help you," Brittany smiled and headed over to help her with the zip, "That was a bit stiff."

"Thank you," Santana thanked quietly.

"Come on San," Quinn interrupted, "Let's get you home."


	9. Staying Home

Nine: Staying Home

"How are you feeling this morning Sannie?" Emilio asked as he walked into the kitchen. Santana was sitting at the table in her pink pyjamas, nightgown and slippers in the middle of painting her first model monkey that she'd started at school.

"Still icky Daddy," she pouted, "Are you at home today?"

"I called my work and said that I couldn't possibly leave you home when you're feeling poorly so I am today. Felix is feeling better and has gone to school and your mother has gone out with a friend so it's just the two of us."

"Yay, can I ask you something?"

"Anything," he said as he sat down opposite her to help her with the painting.

"Will you still love me and spend time with me when the new baby comes?" he smiled and nodded, "Mom won't."

"You just leave your mother to me; that's coming along good," Santana nodded; proud with herself, "Is he all you've done so far?"

"Yeah, you can help me but don't make a mess of it,"

"I'll try not to princess; did Quinn get you this then?"

"Yeah, she's my best friend; do you think I can go to school later?"

"I'm sorry sweetie," he shook his head, "Not when you're feeling poorly; when you're better though." Santana nodded and continued to paint, being careful of her fingers, the table and the actual model. She didn't want to ruin it, "Do you want something to eat?"

"I still feel sick," she hung her head as tears formed in her eyes and she immediately put down her paintbrush, "I don't like it."

"How about we leave this for now and get you back to bed? I'll read you a story just like I used to," Santana nodded and got down from the table. Emilio grabbed a glass of water and followed her upstairs to her room. The whole of Santana's room was bright pink and stickers as well as posters of cats and dogs were stuck on the wall. Aletta had thought that they were a bit too young for her daughter but Emilio reminded her of how they were apart of Santana's childhood and how she still liked them.

"Can we have this one?" Santana whispered and climbed into bed; holding one of her stuffed monkeys to her chest. Emilio nodded and sat down next to her, opening the book up at the first page to begin reading. Santana rested her head on his shoulder and hugged the monkey, listening to him as he read. It was halfway through when she finally fell asleep, head remaining on her dad's shoulder.

"Goodnight princess," Emilio marked the page and tucked the book back where it was before switching off the light and leaving her room, putting the door slightly ajar.

She was still asleep when Quinn came over. Emilio was in the living room doing a puzzle in the weekly newspaper and smiled once he saw her. He was used to Quinn; she often came over to see how Santana was and now she just kind of let herself in.

"She's asleep at the moment," Emilio told her, "But you can go up."

"Is she feeling any better?"

"Not overly, we did some painting but then she didn't feel well so I read her a story and got her to bed. She really does like that monkey set Quinn, thank you,"

"Don't mention it; she fell in love with it straight away, I'll just go on up," he nodded and she headed upstairs to her room to see that she was still asleep, cuddling up to one of her stuffed monkeys. Quinn didn't want to disturb her so shut the door and went back downstairs as quietly as she'd come.

"Is she still asleep?" Emilio called to her.

"Yeah, I didn't want to disturb her,"

"How's Santana been getting on at school?" Emilio asked the blonde, "Has she been having any problems?"

"She gets bullied," Quinn whispered, "But she has made friends with this girl called Brittany."

"Ah yes," he nodded, "Santana has mentioned her; sweet girl."

"Yeah she is nice; don't worry about Santana getting bullied. She's enjoying her classes and the teachers are helping her, she loves it."

"She does talk about her classes a lot,"

"She'll be fine Mr Lopez; she has me and Britt to look after her,"

"She's a lucky girl."

**Okay guys, I haven't written much Brittana in this yet so any ideas for Brittana chapters that you'd like to happen? Shoot them at me in a review. **


	10. Torn Pictures

Ten: Torn Pictures

"Santana, are you okay?" Brittany asked as she entered the choir room. Santana was usually there for Glee Club to either sit and watch or help Mr Schue out but she was here earlier than usual and when she looked at Brittany, Brittany saw that she'd been crying, "Hey, what's the matter?" Santana was silent but just showed her a load of drawings that she'd done with a tear straight down the middle of each one, "Oh my god; who did this?" she didn't answer as Brittany came over to take the drawings from her.

"Don't touch them," Santana defended and Brittany nodded; stepping back a little.

"Who did it?" Brittany asked her. Santana was silent again, "I have to know Santana and then we can tell someone, what happened?"

"Finn," Santana mumbled; biting at her nails.

"Finn Hudson? Fucking hell man, really?"

"You said a naughty word," Santana pointed out straight away.

"Sorry," Brittany bit her lip and Santana nodded; soon forgiving the blonde, "Finn did this though, that's not like him." The door opened and Brittany hoped that it was Finn so she could talk to him but it was just Quinn, "Quinn." Quinn just ignored her as her eyes were fixed straight on Santana.

"Hey babe; what's happened?" Quinn rushed over and gave her a gentle hug before seeing the pieces of her drawings, "Who did this San?" Santana was silent, "Sweetie; who did this to your lovely drawings?"

"It was Finn," Brittany blurted out, "She just told me."

"Finn? Right, stay with her and I am going to go and find that jerk,"

"He'll walk in for Glee Club anyway," Brittany calmed Quinn, "Just wait until then and we can talk to Mr Schue about it." Quinn sat next to Santana to try and comfort her whilst they waited for the others to walk in. As soon as he walked in with Rachel, Quinn lunged straight at him and screamed.

"Hey!" Rachel yelled, "What the hell are you doing?"

"Look at what your boyfriend did to Santana!" Quinn yelled, "Look!"

"What did you do?" Rachel shrugged her shoulders at Finn.

"Karofsky made me do it!" Finn yelled back, "I had to so that I can keep my spot as quarterback on the football team!"

"So, if Karofsky made you jump off a cliff for that...would you do it?" Finn was silent, "You are such a big, flaming idiot Finn Hudson!" she stormed back over to Santana and took her hand in hers, "come on sweetie; let's go and wash your face." Santana nodded and allowed Quinn to take her out the room, still clinging on to her drawings. Brittany shot a death look at Finn and followed them out to the bathroom. Quinn was in there, dabbing gently at Santana's tears, "Hey Britt."

"Hey, is she okay?"

"Yeah, were they new drawings San?"

"What do you mean? Santana asked Quinn.

"Well, are they your latest ones? Did you do them now or ages ago?"

"Ages ago,"

"Hopefully someone will talk to him," Quinn growled through gritted teeth, "Are you alright sweetie?" Santana nodded faintly as Quinn rubbed at her back, "Good girl," she smiled and kissed Santana's forehead.

"Can you come over to my house this evening?" Santana asked her, "Brittany too?" Brittany smiled and nodded as Quinn nodded as well, "Glee Club would be starting in two and a half minutes."

"I know," Quinn nodded, "Come on; we better get back." Once they arrived back, Mr Schue was already having a word with Finn whilst Rachel looked quite annoyed in the corner. Quinn gave Santana small high five, causing her to giggle a little.

Quinn and Brittany headed over to Santana's house after school and Santana told her dad what had happened at school, getting a kiss and a cuddle from him. She was now sitting on her bed with Quinn kneeling behind, brushing her hair.

"You have so many monkeys," Brittany said as she looked around Santana's room, "Do they all have names?" Santana nodded and Brittany went to pick one up but stopped, "Am I allowed to touch them?"

"Yeah, you can," Santana whispered.

"I like this one," Brittany picked up a monkey in a red shirt, "He's really cute."

"You can have him if you like," Santana smiled at Brittany who looked at her in shock, "He's yours."

"Really?" Santana nodded.

"That was nice of you San," Quinn said as she continued to brush her hair, "I love your hair, it's so beautiful."

"Can I go and show daddy?" Quinn nodded as Santana raced out the room and hurried downstairs to show Emilio. Brittany smiled and shook her head; going to sit down on the bed next to Quinn.

"Can I ask you a question?" Quinn nodded, "San's great but isn't it kind of hard to deal with her at times, like she acts quite young and...takes things quite literate and stuff..."

"San's lovely," Quinn told Brittany, "She's so sweet; I love her."

"I can't believe she gave me one of her monkeys,"

"She's brilliant like that; you'll soon get used to her Britt, I promise you."


	11. Broken Arm

Eleven: Broken Arm

Quinn tended to visit Santana every Saturday but when she arrived at her house that Saturday, she saw Santana sitting on the bottom stair of the hallway, head in her hands. Her mom could be heard talking to her dad in the living room.

"What happened babe?" Quinn asked, "What are you doing out here on your own?"

"I'm on a time out," she replied, "I shouted at Mom."

"Now, what did you do that for, eh?" Quinn giggled and ruffled her hair, "You stay here; I'll go and have a word with her." Quinn walked into the living room to see Emilio and Aletta sitting on the couch talking. They both smiled at the blonde when she walked in, "I just spoke to Santana; what happened?"

"She's on a time out, her behaviour has been completely rude towards me this morning," Aletta spoke, "she has five more minutes."

"I was just wondering if she wanted to come to the park with Britt and I,"

"Today isn't the best idea,"

"Surely, she'll be allowed out in five minutes," Emilio spoke up, "Let her go out with her friends, it's nice of her to be playing out with people,"

"Fine," Aletta sighed and turned to Quinn, "She can go now but make sure that she is back by four," Quinn nodded and smiled, thanking them both. It was twelve o'clock now so it gave them plenty of time to hang out together. Santana was still sitting on the stairs, looking bored.

"Come on, you're coming to the park with me and Brittany," Quinn told her.

"Mom won't let me," she whispered.

"She has done as long as you're back by four, come on." A smile spread across Santana's face as she jumped up and ran to Quinn, "Get your coat and then we'll go," she nodded and picked up her coat from the floor, having Quinn help her with it, "Ready to go?" she nodded and ran out of the house with Quinn following close behind. Quinn had to run after her and take her hand, "Stay close to me please; I can't risk anything happening to you or your parents will go spare."

"Can we go on the swings?"

"When we get there."

Brittany was waiting on a bench once they arrived and Santana ran straight over, Quinn following behind. Brittany gave them both a hug and then handed Santana a plastic bag.

"This is for you," Brittany told her, "I made it."

"What is it San?" Quinn asked Santana as she sat down and opened it up. It was a little knitted monkey that Brittany had made herself, "wow Britt; you made that."

"Well, Mom helped me a little bit because the head was going a bit weird," Brittany mentioned, "But I did the body on my own."

"What do you say?" Quinn asked Santana.

"Thank you," she smiled and hugged the monkey, "Can we go on the monkey bars?" Santana beamed and put the knitted monkey back into the plastic bag, "Then I can be a real monkey, can't I?"

"Be careful," Quinn told her. Santana ran to the monkey bars as fast as she could and Quinn had to climb up the ladder with her and help her reach for the first loop, "Right, now just cling onto that with both hands and swing, okay?" Santana nodded and did what Quinn said, "Right, then when you're ready, let go with only one hand and grab hold of the next one."

"It's too high," she whined.

"You can do it, come on," Santana stuck her tongue out with concentration and Brittany stood below, encouraging her as she managed to grip hold of the next loop, "Well done San."

"My hand is all slippery," she cried.

"Come on monkey," Brittany joked from the bottom, "Almost to the end now." Santana attempted to grab hold of the next loop but whilst reaching across, slipped and went crashing to the ground. Brittany ran over to the girl whilst Quinn climbed back down the ladder as fast as she could, "Hey; calm down," Brittany soothed rubbing Santana's back.

"I'm fine," she lied but Quinn could tell that she wasn't.

"Is she okay?" Brittany panicked. Quinn didn't answer as she tried to get Santana to tell her what was wrong. Brittany ran over to the bench and rummaged through the carrier bag, finding the knitted monkey that she'd made for Santana.

"I'm okay," Santana managed.

"I think her arms broken," Quinn told Brittany as she hurried back over. Brittany handed her the monkey to try and comfort her, "There, look what Brittany's brought for you," Quinn soothed rubbing at her good arm, "Listen San, do you want to know a secret?" Santana shrugged and clutched at the monkey, "I've broken my arm before and I was nowhere near as brave as you, I screamed my head off and I know how much it hurts."

"It doesn't hurt," she groaned, blinking to hold back her tears, "I'm fine."

"Can you just call her dad for me?" Quinn asked Brittany and handed Brittany her cell phone, "His number is in my phone somewhere." Brittany nodded and scrolled down the list, until she came to 'Mr Lopez.'

"Daddy will be angry at me," Santana sniffled.

"Now, why would you think that? It wasn't your fault that you took a tumble, besides you are being so brave."

"Quinn..." Santana stuttered as a single tear escaped her eye and fell onto the knitted monkey, "It...It does really hurt."

"I know sweetie," Quinn soothed, "You're still being brave though, aren't you?"

"I called her dad," Brittany said as she hung up and passed the phone back to Quinn, "He'll be here soon alright San?" she nodded with a small smile.

"Are you okay?" Santana turned to Quinn and questioned. The blonde laughed a little and nodded, wondering why Santana was worrying about her, "I just wondered; you're not angry at me?" She shook her head and placed an arm round her shoulder, "Sorry."

"Hey, don't be sorry," Quinn shrugged her shoulder, "This isn't your fault."

Quinn and Brittany stayed with her until Emilio rushed over as fast as he could. He had his car parked at the front gate, ready to drive the three girls to the hospital and as soon as he got there, Santana broke down crying and fell into his arms.

"Come on princess," Emilio soothed and picked her up, letting her wrap her arms round his neck, "Don't be scared; daddy's gotcha, it's going to be okay."

"My arm hurts!" she screamed still clutching the monkey.

"I know," he stroked her hair and took her to the car with Quinn and Brittany following, "We'll get you to the hospital and take a look at that sore arm, okay?" Santana nodded, "And I hear that with broken arms, you get to choose a pretty colour for the cast." Emilio chuckled and tapped her on the nose whilst placing her in the passenger seat.

"Can I have a red cast?"

"If they do red, then yes,"

"What if they don't do red?"

"Then you can have your second favourite colour,"

"I don't have a second favourite colour," she panicked.

"Then you can have my favourite colour," Quinn told her and climbed into the back seat with Brittany.

"What if they don't have your favourite colour?"

"We can worry about that when we get to the hospital," Emilio told his daughter and got behind the wheel, ready to drive to the hospital, "What's that monkey? That's new isn't it?" Santana nodded and sniffed, hugging the knitted monkey.

"Brittany made it for me," she whispered, "It's my favourite monkey." Brittany smiled from the back seat once she heard that.

Santana's arm was broken and Santana was allowed to sit on her dad's lap whilst the doctors fixed her arm up. Quinn and Brittany sat in the waiting room talking and trying to take their mind off of Santana so they wouldn't worry too much.

"Now for the cast," the doctor said, "we have a choice between red, green, blue or pink."

"Red!" Santana screamed straight away and turned to her dad, "I want red!" The doctor chuckled as she got her arm fixed up in a red cast, "It's red!" Emilio nodded and kissed her cheek, "Can we go home now and show Mom? Can we?"

"Come on; go outside to Quinn and Brittany and I'll talk with the doctor," Santana nodded and rushed outside to see Quinn and Brittany.

"Hey look at you," Quinn smiled, "Are we allowed to sign your cast?"Santana nodded and knelt on the floor next to Quinn whilst she and Brittany doodled on her cast. Brittany drew a cat and a heart with her name underneath whilst Quinn was writing an essay, "Done."

"What does it say?" Santana asked, "Can you read it to me?"

"Sure," Quinn said as she put the pen down, "It says, well done you brave, brave girl. I am so proud of you and hope you get better soon, love you beautiful and you are a little sweetheart. Your bestest friend in the whole wide world, Quinn. And I sighed it with a little heart."


	12. Phone Conversation with Quinn

Twelve: Phone Conversation with Quinn

"Do you think I've been a good girl this year?" Santana asked her father whilst she sat at the table, colouring in her colouring book, her right arm in a cast. Her dad sat opposite, watching and drinking his coffee, "Apart from yelling at mom?"

"I think you've been a very good girl," he smiled, "why would you think that you haven't?"

"So you think Santa will come?" she asked, ignoring his question and he nodded, "Good, I don't know what I want for Christmas this year. Lisa said that on the last day of school, we don't have to do any work and that we might be allowed to have a party. I can't wait."

"Do you want me to make anything tasty for you to take in?"

"I don't know; nothing nutty because I'm allergic to nuts. I can't have sweets either though. Quinn doesn't like chocolate that much and Brittany just likes anything."

"How about pizza?" Santana nodded with a smile, "Everyone likes pizza, don't they?"

"I like cheese pizza," Santana mentioned and Emilio winked at her, taking a sip of his coffee, "Lisa said that the party might be on Thursday the 22nd of December."

"I'll write it on the calendar," Emilio said, "And will make you some pizza to take."

"You'll have to make it before Thursday the 22nd of December though so it's ready," he nodded. The phone soon started ringing and Emilio left her daughter to finish colouring whilst he went to answer it. It was Quinn, ringing to check how Santana is. Emilio took the phone through to the kitchen and handed it to Santana, "Quinn!"

"Hey babe, how are you doing?"

"Fine, um...there is going to be a party on Thursday the 22nd of December and I'm bringing pizza. What are you bringing?"

"What party is this then?" Quinn asked from the other end of the phone.

"At school, Lisa said about it. What are you bringing?"

"I don't know yet sweetie, I'll think about it nearer the time alright?"

"Alright, will you let me know?" Santana asked her and heard Quinn laugh, promising her that she would, "I'm colouring."

"What are you colouring?" Quinn questioned her with interest. Santana was silent for a few minutes, "What are you colouring monkey?" she repeated, using the nickname that Santana loved.

"A picture of this girl on a beach," Santana told her, "Can we go to the beach Quinn? I like the beach,"

"I like the beach too," Quinn giggled, "We can go in the summer time but not in winter because it will be too cold for us won't it?"

"Good point," Santana sighed, "My arm still hurts a little bit Quinn." Quinn smiled; loving the sad, childlike voice that Santana had when she was upset or scared about something. She hadn't seen her in person since she'd broken her arm which was the main reason she rang her, "Daddy said I can't take my cast off yet."

"No don't take your cast off," Quinn told her, "It's there to make your arm feel better."

"My arm doesn't feel poorly,"

"No I meant it's there to fix your arm because it broke didn't it? You broke your arm so you need to fix it with the cast,"

"Oh yeah," Santana whined, "Will it hurt again tomorrow?"

"It might do but it'll soon stop hurting, don't worry about it," Santana nodded her head and Quinn was silent for a few seconds before speaking again, "How about I bring a sponge cake, to the party? Everyone likes cake, I'm sure."

"I like cake," Santana smiled, "Bring cake, yeah. Without nuts though because I'm not allowed nuts."

"Don't worry, we can't risk you having an allergic reaction, it'll be without nuts," Quinn reassured her, "Well; I'll let you get back to your work okay? See you at school and make sure that you rest that arm." Santana promised her that she would before hanging up and handed the phone back to her dad.

"She's bringing a cake," she mentioned to him.

"If this party is going to happen, I will have to hand Lisa a list of stuff that you're not allowed to have won't I?" Santana nodded as the front door slammed open and Aletta walked in, back from shopping, "Hello love, Santana was just telling me about this Christmas party at school. It sounds great and we're going to make some pizza, aren't we kiddo?"

"I'm not sure if that sounds like a good idea," Aletta sighed sitting down next to her husband, "You know she isn't allowed any fizzy drinks, sweets or anything that is high in sugar for that matter?"

"I'll let Lisa know about that," Emilio told her, "But I've already said that she can go."

"I'm allowed cake, right daddy? Cake isn't that sugary."

"Course you can have a bit of cake," Emilio said and turned back to his wife, "She's going," he mentioned to her, "End of discussion."

**Okay so another look on Santana's family life. As you can see, her dad Emilio is quite fond of his daughter and spoils her rotten whilst her mom Aletta is quite strict with her, maybe because she has autism, we don't know. I haven't really mentioned Aletta's pregnancy much and I haven't mentioned Santana's younger brother Felix but more stuff about that will come later on. Also, you see that Santana isn't allowed much sugary stuff and that's because she can get quite hyperactive and feel sick when she eats it. You'll see how protective Quinn is about that when it gets to that chapter. Anyway, thanks for the reviews, I really appreciate them. **


	13. Family Visit

Thirteen: Family Visit

"Daddy, we didn't drive this way last time," Santana told her father from the back seat of the car. It was Saturday morning and Santana and her family were driving north to visit her aunty and uncle and her cousins, "We turned left." Felix was sitting next to Santana, playing on his portable game and didn't seem at all bothered on what way they were going.

"This is the quicker way," Emilio told her, "We'll be there in ten minutes or less if we take this way."

"Ten minutes or less, will we be there in ten minutes or nine minutes or..."

"Ten minutes of less is what your father said Santana," Aletta snapped.

"Ten minutes," Emilio corrected himself and glared at his wife who was sitting and rubbing her baby bump.

"What if we're not there in ten minutes though? What if we get there in like eight minutes or eleven and a half minutes?"

"Then I am a very naughty man but I can assure you that we will be there in ten minutes, are you looking forward to seeing your cousins?"

Santana wasn't looking forward to seeing her cousins at all. There was a small boy called Bobby who was the same age as Felix and they had fun together, there was then Bobby's twin sister Deliah who Santana quite liked and seemed to hang out with a bit, but the older kids Cruz and Adriana were not nice. Cruz was eighteen and Adriana was the same age as Santana but they bullied her because of how different she was from everyone else. Her Aunty Rayne and Uncle Adan didn't even pay her that much attention. She usually just sat outside with Deliah when she visited, listening to the names that Cruz and Adriana called her.

"Yeah," she lied quietly and hung her head. Emilio sighed and looked at Aletta who was drifting off in the passenger seat. He knew that Santana was lying but he wasn't going to push the subject.

"I bet Bobby doesn't have a play station portable like I do," Felix bragged as he finished off the next level of his game, "I bet he doesn't! He's too poor."

"That isn't very nice Felix," Emilio told his son, "Is it?"

"But he is poor; he lives on a farm doesn't he?"

"Yeah but it doesn't mean he's poor,"

"Oh," Felix shut up after that.

When they arrived, everyone exchanged hugs and kisses and Felix and Bobby rushed off together straight away whilst the adults discussed the new baby. Santana stood awkwardly by the car when Deliah hurried over, dressed in a little dress with her brown hair in pigtails.

"Sannie," she giggled and hugged Santana. The adults walked off but Emilio held back.

"I'll be in the house if you need me princess," Emilio kissed Santana's cheek, "You have fun and come and get me if you need me," he smiled before walking away. Santana took hold of Deliah's small hand when Adriana and Cruz walked over, laughing and nudging each other.

"Go away!" Deliah snapped at her brother and sister, making them laugh, "Sannie, play horsey."

"Hey retard," Cruz picked up a bunch of straw and threw it over Santana, "Haha, take that! What happened to your arm retard? You break it or something?"

"Leave Sannie alone," Deliah spoke up and brushed the straw off of her cousin. Santana remained silent and took Deliah away from them both, "I love you Sannie."

"I love you too," Santana smiled at her cousin and set her down on a rock, giving her a cuddle.

"What happened to your arm Sannie?"

"I hurt it," she answered, "Playing on the monkey bars."

Meanwhile, Emilio was looking out the window at her daughter who was fussing over Deliah and giving her kisses. She was never like that at home but for some reason, she seemed attached to Deliah.

"So, how have you been feeling?" Rayne asked her sister, Aletta, "Any morning sickness?"

"Only a little bit but not much,"

"How are the kids?" Adan chuckled, "Felix and um...well Santana."

"Felix is lovely, he's doing so well at school and got four gold stars last week," Aletta said proudly, "His teachers are so proud of him and he has lots of good friends, he's a popular little lad and he's so good with his reading."

"Santana is doing well too, isn't she love?" Emilio asked; coming over to join the discussion, "She's loving her art."

"I'm sure she is," Rayne sighed and sipped at her tea, "She's a bit of an odd child really, no wonder she doesn't have many friends. She doesn't let anybody near her,"

"Yeah, I know." Aletta nodded in agreement, "She even fell off the monkey bars in the park and broke her arm for goodness sake."

"She has friends, doesn't she?" Emilio asked his wife who remained silent, "And her math is coming along quite well as well, she got ten out of ten on the last quiz she did."

"Yes but it was the two times tables with her Lisa," Aletta blurted out, "A baby could do that easily."

"Who's Lisa?" Rayne asked.

"Santana's helper," she put the air quotes on the word helper, "I don't think it's doing her much good anyway, they should just put her on the harder work and accept the fact that she can't do it," Emilio glared at Aletta in annoyance and shook his head.

"I'm going to go and check on the kids," he made an excuse to leave and left the room in silence.


	14. Counselling

Fourteen: Counselling

"We need to talk," Emilio slammed his hand down on the table in front of his wife. It was eleven o'clock at night and both of the kids were fast asleep in bed, "I didn't want to say anything in front of your sister but now we're home. What is your problem with Santana? She is your daughter."

"Just drop it Emilio, alright?"

"No, just because she is different from Felix. What if this new baby has autism as well? Are you just going to block them out as well? Santana has an illness and she needs you,"

"I find it hard to deal with it alright?" she snapped, close to tears, "I find it so, so hard! She is never going to get better; that is what upsets me."

"She needs her mom in her life though, I was looking through councillor leaflets the other day and I was scared to ask you about it because of how you'd react."

"Councillor leaflets?"

"I just think that she needs a professional to talk to, she has dyslexia, she throws tantrums when things are out of routine and she gets so anxious when she is out on her own or in busy crowds. It's not a punishment; it's a method of help. She will never be cured of autism but she can be treated if she has help."

"What have you found?" Aletta sighed.

"There is this lovely woman who lives ten minutes away from here called Joanne. I have already talked to her on the phone and she seems so nice, I said that I'd ring to book an appointment if we decide to go ahead with her."

"Santana hates meeting new people though, you know she does,"

"Joanne understands that but she can help Santana get over that fear, we will try one session with her and if things don't work out then we can have another think,"

"Fine; did she say what the earliest appointment would be?"

"Tomorrow morning."

* * *

><p>"Santana, sweetheart, are you okay?" Santana nodded as she attempted to tie her shoelaces. Emilio smiled and knelt down to help her, "Now, this woman is called Joanne and she is such a lovely lady. She will expect you to talk to her about things alright?"<p>

"I don't know her though," Santana whined; close to tears, "I'm not allowed to talk to strangers."

"Sweetheart, Joanne is not a stranger and you are going to see her so she can help you. She sounded so nice and you will adore her, I promise you."

"Promise me?" he nodded and gave her a quick hug before helping her into her coat and taking her out to the car, "You've also got the whole day off school; I have rang Principal Figgins and he has allowed it so after this, you can come shopping with me maybe?"

"Okay," Santana whispered.

The session was at Joanne's house. It was quite a big house with apple trees growing outside it and a black cat sat on the wall, meowing as Santana walked up the path with her dad. Joanne answered the door and allowed them to come in, her hair tied up in a ponytail whilst she wore all black.

"You must be Santana," she said sweetly but Santana was silent, "If you'd like to come upstairs to my room and we can have a chat, is your dad staying?"

"If you don't mind," Emilio said as he walked up the stairs with Santana.

"Now, Mr Lopez..."

"Call me Emilio," he corrected her.

"Okay Emilio, you sit on the couch and if Santana would like to sit in the chair opposite mine," Santana sat down and a tabby cat jumped down from the desk and went to rub her head against Santana's leg, "Don't worry about Molly, she does get in the way of my sessions. Did you see my other cat outside?" Santana nodded, "Yeah that one's Arthur."

"Santana likes cats, don't you?" Emilio asked as Santana stroked Molly.

"I prefer monkeys," she said quietly.

"Ah I'm afraid that I don't have any of those," Joanne said, "So, how have you been then? Bit of a surprise, coming here wasn't it?" Santana nodded in silence and continued to stroke the cat, "do you mind coming here at all or are you a bit nervous?"

"Bit nervous," she admitted.

"I understand that, I'm new to you aren't I? We will get used to each other though, I'm sure,"

"Um...do you like parties?" Santana asked, out of the blue.

"I love parties," Joanne said, "do you?"

"I'm going to one; at school for Christmas, Daddy said that he'd cook me some pizza to take."

"Sounds good; I'm sure you'll have a blast."

"A blast?"

"A good time," she rephrased, "A blast means that you'll have a good time and I'm sure you will, eh?" Santana nodded as Joanne turned to Emilio, "So, she has Autism, is that right?" Emilio nodded sadly and sighed.

"One of the severe types," he mentioned, "She doesn't talk to people much unless she really knows them and she does act very young for her age. She likes routine and structure quite a bit as well."

"Daddy, can we get a cat?" Santana asked; unaware of what he and Joanne were talking about.

"Maybe sweetie, we'll have to see," Emilio told her and turned back to Joanne, "I understand that she might have to be looked after her whole life but her...her mother doesn't, she's finding it very hard to accept the fact that Santana has autism."

"It's hard for a mother," Joanne said, "But as long as Santana has you to help and look after her, she should be fine. I'll also be happy to keep seeing her, she'll need all the support that she's got."


	15. Christmas Party

Fifteen: Christmas Party

"Did you have any ideas for the kids Christmas presents?" Emilio asked Aletta early on the Thursday morning and also the day of Santana's Christmas party, "I know we have some things ready but I had another extra idea for Santana?"

"Not Felix," Aletta sighed as she did the dishes.

"Yes Felix," Emilio corrected, "But it is mainly for Santana; how about a cat?" Aletta turned and gave him one of those looks as if to say 'you're joking right?' Emilio smiled and shook his head, "she gets on well with the cats at Joanne's place and she keeps asking me for one."

"She won't bloody look after it, will she?"

"Yes she will; why don't you trust her for a change? It's a chance to give her more responsibilities for herself. You want that, don't you?" Aletta nodded, "A cat could do that for her, she bonded so well with Arthur and Molly."

"Who?"

"Joanne's cats,"

"Daddy!" Emilio stopped talking as Santana raced down with her backpack, "Where's the pizza?" he ruffled her hair and took the pizza out of the refrigerator, "Why do you put it in there? Pizza doesn't go in there." Aletta rolled her eyes but Emilio was patient with his daughter.

"It's to keep it fresh," he told her, "You like cold pizza don't you?"

"Well, I prefer it warm,"

"I know you do but by the time you get to school with warm pizza, it would have gone cold already wouldn't it?"

"Good point," Santana nodded; taking the box of pizza from her dad, "Can we go now? I don't want to be late," Emilio nodded and kissed Aletta on the cheek before taking Santana off to school, "I can't wait for this party! It's going to be fun,"

"I know sweetheart," he chuckled as they climbed into the car.

Santana wouldn't stop talking about the party the whole way there and Emilio walked into the school with her and took her to Lisa; letting her know about the foods that she wasn't allowed to eat. He soon left and Santana helped Lisa clean the office for a bit.

"After this, I'll take you to the gym and you can hang out at the party with Quinn and Brittany," Lisa promised as Santana stacked some folders on the desk, "I will be there as well so I want no trouble with you alright?" Santana nodded and smiled at her.

"It's going to be fun,"

Quinn and Brittany were already in the Gym and Quinn rushed straight over to give the Latina a hug. Lisa went over to talk to Mr Schuester and Miss Pillsbury whilst Quinn took Santana over to Brittany who also gave her a hug.

"I got you something to eat," Quinn told Santana and handed her a plate, "And don't worry, no nuts and nothing high in sugar. I know what you're allowed."

"Thank you, it's Christmas soon,"

"It sure is babe, are you excited?" Santana nodded, "Do you know what Santa is bringing you?"

"Not yet, I want a cat or a monkey if that's possible,"

"A cat maybe but I doubt a monkey will be possible," Quinn laughed. Santana sat with Quinn and Brittany whilst they ate some of the party food and watched everyone else. Finn and Puck seemed to be having quite a competitive game of basketball in the corner with Artie as the judge and everyone else sort of just merged between the crowd.

"It's too loud in here," Santana placed her hands over her ears after they'd sat for about five minutes, just talking.

"Do you want to go outside?" Quinn asked and Santana nodded, "Alright; you coming Britt? We're just going outside for a bit."

"Sure," Brittany smiled and followed them out the gym, "How about we go to the choir room?" Quinn agreed and they went to sit in the choir room for a few minutes. Santana walked over to a guitar and began strumming it, "I wish I could play guitar," Brittany said.

"San, like this," Quinn took the guitar from her friend and began playing gently, "See the difference?" Santana faintly nodded as she eyed Quinn carefully, "Try it," Quinn offered and handed the guitar back to her.

"I didn't know you played guitar Quinn," Brittany said as she sat on one of the chairs watching.

"I don't really, I know the notes but I don't play properly. My sister taught me once, that's it San," she complimented as she watched her friend play, "You're getting the hang of that." Quinn let Santana continue to play with the guitar before walking over to sit next to Brittany.

"You're so good with her Quinn," Brittany smiled, "She kind of hates me."

"San doesn't hate you, do you San?" Santana looked up, "You don't hate Brittany, do you?" She shook her head and got back to the guitar, "See?"

"I guess," she shrugged, "I'll never be as close with her as you are though,"

"You never know."

**Next chapter, you find out how Quinn and Santana got so close with each other. **


	16. The Best Present Ever

**Nayanna Rivergron: Sorry that that chapter was the same as one in your story but it was accidental. I haven't actually been reading your story so I had no idea until you mentioned it and I decided to have a read. It's a good story don't worry and again, sorry that the idea was the same :) **

Sixteen: The Best Present Ever

"Thank you Mom, Thank you Dad; I love all my presents," Santana smiled as she sat on the living room floor next to the tree. Felix sat next to her pushing his new car along the carpet and making car sounds.

"Wait," Emilio stood up, "There is just one more," Aletta gave him a death look as he left the room and came back with a big round box, wrapped in red paper. He placed it in front of Santana and smiled as she started to unwrap it, revealing a box with a wired door and inside was a small tabby cat.

"He's mine!" Santana squealed opening the door and taking the cat out, "He's really mine!"

"All yours," Emilio told her as she cuddled the cat in her arms and kissed his ear.

"No," Aletta put down her drink and walked over, taking the cat and putting him back into the cage, "You are just too irresponsible, I'm sorry," she locked the door and picked up the cage; taking it out the room.

"But," Santana said close to tears, "My cat," she whispered and run out and up the stairs as fast as she could.

"Can we have turkey now?" Felix asked who had been ignoring the whole conversation.

"Be right back son," Emilio told him and went to find his wife who'd locked the cat away in the garage, "What is wrong with you? Santana deserves to have a cat, something of her own."

"We agreed that she wasn't getting one,"

"You agreed, I didn't,"

"She may be old enough Emilio but she doesn't act it; she has autism and she needs to learn to be responsible for stuff like pets, I'm sorry!"

"You can't just take him away from her," Emilio sighed and folded his arms, "She keeps the cat for two weeks and if there's a problem, then we'll take him back. Just give her a chance; she hardly has any friends at school other than Quinn and Brittany and she needs a friend in her life." Aletta just stared at her husband, hand resting on her baby bump. She finally brought the cage down from the shelf and handed it over to Emilio, "Besides; I have already brought cat things for him."

"Two weeks," Aletta said, "She will prove you wrong though."

"We'll just see about that," he said before walking out.

Santana seemed to be fast asleep in bed when he went upstairs. He smiled, not wanting to disturb her and placed the cage down on the floor of her bedroom before quietly leaving the room and shutting the door. The cat purred and scratched at the cage door, meowing loudly causing Santana to stir and roll onto her back. She gasped once she saw who was in her room and fell to the floor to let her new friend out.

"Hey boy," she cooed and sat down on the bed with the cat in her arms, "Hey; I'm going to call you Mikey, hello, such a good boy. I'm going to take good care of you, I promise."

**Short chapter but cute lol. I know I said that I was going to write a chapter with how Quinn and Santana met but that will be in the next chapter, don't worry. **


	17. My Best Friend

Seventeen: My Best Friend

Santana lay sprawled out on the floor with Mikey curled up next to her, fast asleep. She sighed deeply as she tapped her pen against her notepad and Emilio soon looked up from his newspaper; sensing that she was having trouble.

"Are you okay honey?" he asked and she shook her head, "What's the problem?" he asked, putting down his paper to focus his full attention on her.

"Lisa set me some work over the Christmas vacation to try and practice my spelling and writing skills; I have to write about my best friend but I can't think of anything."

"Well who's your best friend?"

"Quinn, but I don't know how to start it," she groaned.

"Well," Emilio cleared his throat, "I would start with Quinn is my best friend because...then describe why she is your best friend and then maybe go on to where you met and how. Can you remember?" Santana nodded faintly, "She stuck up for you at the park didn't she? When those boys were being mean to you,"

"Yeah, I wouldn't talk to her at first," she shook her head.

"You get writing then," he chuckled, "And ask me if you need any more help."

Santana nodded and began scribbling quickly about Quinn.

_My best friend is called Quinn Fabray. Our parents had known each other for a long time and one day when we were both six years old, they took us out for a picnic at the park. Quinn was nice and kept talking to me but I wouldn't talk to her, she was a stranger to me._

"_Why don't you and Quinn go and play on the swings?" Mom said but I didn't want to. I was fine eating my cheese and pickle sandwich._

"You remember what sandwich you had?" Emilio asked as he peered over her shoulder.

"Shush," she scolded him and carried on writing.

"_Well, why don't you Quinn and Santana will catch you up?" Mom said again and Quinn ran off to the swings. I stayed on the blanket eating my cheese and pickle sandwich, "Santana; stop messing me about," Mom told me but I didn't listen._

"_Kids will be kids," Quinn's mom said._

"_Just go and play in the sandbox," I was scared of my mom's voice so I ran off to the sandbox and played in it. Then some big kids came over and began kicking sand at my face. Mom and Quinn's mom weren't paying any attention. _

"_Hey little girl, having fun all by yourself?" one of them asked._

"_This is our sandbox girly! For big kids!" The other one said, "Now beat it!"_

_Quinn saved me though and walked up to the sandbox, standing up to the big kids. _

"_Hey leave her alone!" Quinn was very brave and started yelling mean words at these big kids, "She never did anything to you! Just go away and scram!" she screamed and I just watched. The big kids looked at me but then walked away together, "They'll never bother you again," Quinn said and went to walk away._

"_Hey," I whispered and she came back, "Play in the sand with me."_

"_Sure," Quinn smiled and sat next to me, "I'm Quinn."_

"_Santana, can you be my best friend Quinn?"_

"_Yes, I've never had a best friend before,"_

"_I heard it's nice, you be mine and I be yours, kay?" Quinn nodded and now, she is still my best friend._

"Daddy, I've finished!" Santana squealed once she'd stopped writing, "I wrote about Quinn my best friend!"

"Well done princess," Emilio smiled, "Do you want me to check it for you?"

"Yes please," Santana went and handed it to him, "Mikey helped me at some bits."

"This is great sweetie," he said as he scanned it over, "Well done."

"It is one hundred percent truthful, it's good to be truthful; Quinn told me one time. Do you get sent to jail for telling a lie?"

"No but still, lying isn't very nice. Why?"

"Just wondered, is it really good daddy?" Emilio nodded and handed it to her, "I'm going to go and put it in my bag ready for when we go back to school."

"Alright honey,"

"I love you daddy," Santana smiled and hugged him.

"I love you too princess."


	18. The Date

Eighteen: The Date

"Quinn, can I ask you a question?" Brittany asked Quinn. They were in the kitchen of her house baking some cookies together but Brittany had other things on her mind, "You know I've slept with both guys and girls before right?" Quinn nodded as she licked the chocolate off her fingers, "I...I want to ask Santana out."

"Really?" Quinn asked in shock, "She hasn't really been with guys or girls before Britt; she's had crushes but she's never been on dates,"

"Do you think she'd say yes?"

"Do you love her that much?" Brittany nodded, "That's sweet Britt but I honestly don't know what she'd say; her dad is dropping her off later though so why don't you ask her eh?" Brittany smiled and nodded, "You never know; she might say yes. San is ever so sweet; she isn't going to be mean about it or anything."

"Thanks Quinn."

The doorbell soon went and Brittany answered it to see Mr Lopez standing there with Santana who had Mikey curled up in her arms. Brittany and Quinn hadn't seen her new cat yet so Santana said she'd bring him over.

"See you soon kiddo," Emilio said and kissed Santana on the cheek as she went inside with Brittany.

"Hey San," Quinn ran through and gasped once she saw the cat, "Is this him?" Santana nodded as Quinn stroked his head, "He's so sweet; you are lucky."

"San, can I ask you a question?" Brittany asked as Santana sat on the couch with her cat; not bothering about the smell of cookies coming from the kitchen, "You know I like you yeah? I won't be like any other mean people and I will never make fun of you."

"Mikey too?"

"Yeah, Mikey too," Brittany nodded, "Do you know what a lesbian is?"

"A lesbian is a girl who likes girls instead of boys," Santana said and Brittany realised how smart she was, "My daddy said that I could be one because I had a crush on my babysitter when I was younger and I say that boys are icky."

"Yeah, well I'm something called bi-sexual,"

"Someone who likes both sexes," Santana smiled and Brittany nodded, "Quinn's straight."

"Yeah Quinn is straight; do you want to go on a date with me though? Like this Saturday maybe?"

"Like a kissing date?"

"Maybe, we could just go out for dinner and see how we get on,"

"I've never been on a date before," Santana smiled, "I'd love to."

"Really?" Brittany asked and she nodded, cuddling her cat, "Great, can I hold Mikey?" Santana allowed Brittany to take the cat whilst she ran into the kitchen to talk to Quinn who was putting out the finished cookies on a tray.

"Quinn!" she yelled, "Do you gave some paper?"

"Um...yeah, somewhere," Quinn left the cookies and opened up the drawer of one of the cupboards, pulling out a little notepad, "Here," she said and handed it to Santana along with a pen; thinking she probably wanted to do some drawing.

"What's the most important thing to remember on a date?" Santana asked as she wrote something down at the top of the page.

"Brittany asked you then," Quinn asked with a giggle and she nodded, "Well; always have a sense of humour," Quinn told her, "And always smell nice; bad smell means bad date."

"Change my smell," Santana rephrased and wrote it down.

"So, when's the date?" Quinn asked.

"Saturday night, just eating out at that cafe that we go to,"

"Oh, does Brittany like it there?"

"She doesn't know we're going there but that's where I always go when I eat out,"

"Why don't you try somewhere different? Breadstix is nice," Santana shrugged, "Try it; you'll have fun, I'm sure."

"I'll take your word for it," Santana said and wrote that down as well, "I am going to wear that black dress I wore last summer and have my hair all curly and pretty and then wear my smart black boots as well."

"You're not going until Saturday," Quinn laughed, "You have plenty of time; do you fancy trying one of these cookies for me?" Santana nodded and rushed over, picking one up from the tray and biting into it, "Nice?"

"You're a really good cook Quinn,"

"Thanks babe," Quinn ruffled her hair, "That means a lot coming from you because I know you're telling the truth; what have you done with your new girlfriend anyway?" Santana looked confused, "Brittany," Quinn rephrased.

"Oh, she's looking after Mikey for me in the living room,"

"Brittany loves cats; you know she has one of her own right?"

"Yeah," Santana nodded, "She'd be a good vet; they're doctors who work with animals,"

"I know," Quinn giggled, "Brittany would be good at that job."

"I can't wait for our date," Santana smiled, "I think we will go to Breadstix."

* * *

><p>Santana and Brittany sat opposite each other at a table for two in Breadstix. Santana was sipping at her drink through the straw whilst Brittany watched her. Quinn had done Santana's hair specially and she was wearing the black dress that she'd said about.<p>

"So, do you like it here?" Brittany asked and Santana nodded, "Good."

"You have a little bit of hair sticking up," Santana pointed out and tried to flatten it down for Brittany.

"It's fine sweetie," Brittany stopped her, "It doesn't matter."

"It does though,"

"I'll do it later yeah? When I have a mirror,"

"I have a mirror in my bag," Santana said; obviously not letting the subject drop, "I'll let you borrow it."

"It's fine," Brittany shook her head, finding it quite hard, "I'll do it later; promise." Santana nodded, just as the food arrived. They'd both ordered a burger with fries and salad, "The food here is lovely."

"Quinn likes salad," Santana told her, "Her favourite dressing is Italian."

"I like Italian," Brittany smiled.

"Me too, why do they call it dressing? It isn't a dress, its sauce."

"Well," Brittany took a bite out of her burger, "I don't really know to be honest."

"Why don't you know?" Brittany shrugged her shoulders, "Daddy says I know everything; but I don't do I? No one knows everything,"

"Well, he just means that you're really clever."

"Then why doesn't he say that I'm really clever? Why does he say that I know everything?"

"I don't know," Brittany sighed.

"We should do this again," Santana smiled, munching on a couple of fries, "It's nice."

"It is," Brittany nodded in agreement and the two of them sat in silence for the rest of the meal.


	19. The New Baby

Nineteen: The New Baby

"So, how was the date?" Quinn asked Brittany. It was a couple of weeks later and Quinn hadn't really had time to ask Brittany how her and Santana's date was. Brittany sighed and shrugged her shoulders, running a hand through her blonde hair, whilst pondering for an answer.

"Hard," she finally said, "I do love San but...how do you deal with it? She was getting obsessed over a strand of my hair and she just kept asking questions that I didn't know the answer to,"

"I just take it," Quinn told her, "I've known San for ages so it's been easy for me; a couple more dates and you'll be okay with it."

There was a loud hammering on the front door and Quinn left Brittany to go and answer it. It was Emilio with Santana and he looked rushed and panicked. Hugging and kissing Santana, he quickly shoved her inside.

"Aletta's gone into labor," he told Quinn, "Can Santana just stay with you tonight? Felix is staying at a friend's house,"

"Sure," Quinn told him and rubbed Santana's shoulder but Santana pulled away.

"She's in a stress because I made her leave Mikey at home," Emilio mentioned and blew a kiss to Santana, "I'll see you soon sweetie; she's got her overnight bag with her, thanks Quinn," Quinn smiled and waved goodbye to him as he left.

"Come on trouble," Quinn joked.

"Mikey," Santana whined, "He always sleeps on my bed."

"I'm sorry babe, my mom isn't too keen on cats though and Mikey will be fine on his own just for tonight," Quinn hugged her and took her into the living room to where Brittany was, "Britt's here though, look."

"My girlfriend!" Santana pointed out with excitement and Quinn nodded, "Where's your mom?"

"She's working," Quinn couldn't help but smile at how Santana always needed to know the answer to stuff.

"My mom's at the hospital," Santana told her and Brittany.

"What happened?" Brittany asked in a panic.

"She's having the baby," Santana said as she sat down on the floor, throwing her bag down as Quinn knelt next to her.

"So, do you want a brother or sister?" Quinn asked, unclipping the hair slides from Santana's hair.

"No," Santana yelled and snatched the clips away, "You'll ruin it, and I like it this way,"

"No I won't," Quinn soothed, "I'm going to make it all pretty; you'll look like a celebrity, eh beautiful?" Santana nodded and let Quinn continue with styling her hair, "So brother or sister? Your mom doesn't know what it's going to be yet, does she?"

"She doesn't but I want a sister, I already have a brother and he's a pain,"

"I'm sure he is," Quinn laughed, "You should have your hair down more often; you look gorgeous," Santana giggled, "What's so funny?" Quinn asked. Santana didn't answer and just kept on laughing, "What?"

"You look funny," Santana blurted out.

"Huh?" Quinn stopped playing with Santana's hair and shot her friend a confused look, "Nice," she scoffed sarcastically, "I...I don't really know what to say to that."

"You said that your mom doesn't like cats," Santana stopped laughing and went onto a different subject.

"Yeah, she's allergic," Quinn mentioned.

"What do you mean?"

"She starts sneezing when she's around cats and her throat gets all itchy, it isn't very nice so it was probably best not to bring Mikey with you."

"She's at work though,"

"I know, but she'll be home tonight won't she?" Santana nodded, "I think we should head off to bed."

"But we need to wait for your mom," Santana told Quinn.

"No we don't sweetie, it's late and Mom won't be home until midnight at the latest; come on," Quinn took Santana's bag and helped her up from the floor, "Britt will read you a story; I think we've still got the end of my book to finish."

"But Brittany hasn't read it,"

"Then you can explain what has happened so far, go with her," Brittany smiled and took Santana upstairs to Quinn's room. Quinn stayed up for a little bit to tidy the house so it was clean for when her mom got back. Going upstairs, she saw Santana lying in her bed, cuddling up to one of her stuffed monkeys, fast asleep, "Did she get off okay?"

"Yeah but she got moody and wouldn't change into her pyjamas so I just let her sleep in her clothes,"

"That's fine," Quinn said, "She's probably worrying about her mom; she doesn't say she is but I can usually tell. Are you okay on the floor or you can sleep with San in my bed and I'll take the floor, I really don't mine."

"I'll be fine on the floor,"

"Sure?" Brittany nodded and the two of them got ready quietly before getting to sleep. Quinn had her cell phone switched on and next to the bed in case Santana's dad tried calling or something.

Santana woke up around midnight to the sound of Judy coming in. She didn't usually sleep through noises and instead of going back to sleep, she shook Quinn who was lying next to her. Brittany was still asleep but as Quinn woke up, the bedroom door opened and Judy walked in.

"Hey girls," Judy smiled at the two girls who were awake, "are you okay Santana?" Santana nodded and clung to Quinn, "You must be tired; Brittany still asleep, I see."

"Brittany sleeps through anything," Quinn giggled, "Unlike San here," she yawned, "She wakes up at the slightest noise and wakes me up with her."

"Well, I spoke to your dad literally ten minutes ago," Judy told Santana with a smile.

"How's mom?" she asked.

"She's fine, so is your new sister," Santana smiled and clapped her hands whilst Quinn tried to calm her down, "You can see her but tomorrow morning okay? Your mom is tired and your dad wants you to get some sleep tonight."

"What's her name?"

"Lucia May Lopez,"

"I wanna see her," Santana whined.

"In the morning," Quinn told her, "You need sleep; we all do."

"Can you come too?" Santana asked Quinn, "You and Brittany?" Quinn nodded and kissed her cheek, "Good; what time are we going?"

"We can go at ten," Judy promised, "That's a promise so get some sleep and I'll take you all to see your mom and your new sister at ten," Santana nodded.

* * *

><p>Santana walked between Quinn and Brittany through the hospital corridors, carrying a bouquet of flowers. Felix was already sitting cross legged on his mom's bed when they walked in and Aletta sat in bed, cradling the new baby whilst Emilio stood next to her.<p>

"Come and see your new sister San," Emilio placed an arm round Santana as she handed Aletta the flowers.

"Thank you," she whispered but didn't take the flowers. Quinn took them and stood them in a vase next to the bed, "This is Lucia May."

"She's really small," Santana said.

"Yeah, Felix was that small wasn't he when he was first born? So were you once," Emilio said.

"Can I hold her?"

"Not right now," Aletta said.

"I got to hold her," Felix bragged with a chuckle; obviously pleased with himself. Quinn hung her head and looked towards Brittany who were both thinking the exact same thing.


	20. Santana Goes Missing

Twenty: Santana Goes Missing

Brittany went over to Santana's house when Aletta was home with the new baby. Emilio was at work and Felix was helping his mom in the kitchen with Lucia. Santana was in the living room doing some drawing.

"Hey, what are you doing in here?" Brittany asked going to sit next to her, "Thought you would be with your brother helping your mom out."

"She doesn't want me to," Santana mumbled. Santana was had been drawing nonstop, now that her sling was off her arm.

"I'm sure that isn't true," Brittany smiled; attempting to cheer Santana up.

"It is," Santana nodded, "She said so herself."

"Stay here, yeah?" Brittany rubbed her shoulder and walked into the kitchen to see Felix at the kitchen table, cradling his new sister whilst Aletta sat opposite watching. She seemed surprised to see Brittany when she walked in, "Felix is only like five," she mentioned.

"And? He's old enough to hold a baby," Aletta snapped.

"So is Santana then," she shrugged, "She's older than Felix and you won't even let her help out. It isn't her fault that she has autism, she'd love to show you a drawing that she has done one day and have you hug her and congratulate her but you never do. All you care about is yourself,"

"I care about my children,

"Felix and Lucia who don't have autism, what is wrong with Santana? Nothing, that's the answer. Santana is a lovely girl and I am so glad that I made friends with her, sure, I've found her hard to be with at times."

"She's always hard to be with," Aletta scoffed.

"She can be hard," Brittany said, "When I went on that date with her, she was getting obsessed over a strand of my hair and I felt quite annoyed and angry..." the front door slammed shut but Brittany kept talking, "But she is lovely and so sweet, I don't care that she has autism because the truth is...I love her."

"She's gone," Aletta whispered. Brittany looked confused and turned round to see the front door closed, running into the living room, she saw that Santana was missing.

"San," Brittany screamed and ran out of the front door, stopping as she saw a couple of pieces of paper sitting on the front step. She picked them up and once she put them together, she saw that it was a picture of her, one that Santana had drawn, "Oh San." There was only one place where Brittany thought of Santana going and that was Quinn's place so as fast as possible, she raced towards Quinn's and hammered on the door, calling to her.

"What the hell?" Quinn asked and unlocked the door, "Brittany; what's wrong?"

"Is San here?" she asked, out of breath, "Please say she is."

"No, what's happened?"

"She's gone, she ran away," Quinn's eyes went wide, "I was at her house and I went to have a chat with her mom about the way she was treating her and I did say that Santana can be hard to be with and the date was quite hard but...she...she must have heard."

"You bloody idiot," Quinn growled through gritted teeth.

"I'm sorry, I did say that she was lovely to be around but Santana didn't hear that bit. She's gone though and she left this picture of me that she's drawn torn up on the doorstep."

"Come on," Quinn grabbed her coat and slipped it on, "We're going to find her; she can't be out on her own,"

"Why?"

"She gets panicky, that's why her dad always tells me to keep an eye on her," Brittany looked close to tears as Quinn shut the door behind her and led Brittany to the park, "She likes the park, just check everywhere including the cafe. I'll try and ring her,"

"Got it," Brittany nodded and ran towards the cafe. Quinn stayed where she was and tried ringing Santana's cell, hoping that she'd answer. She did.

"San, where are you?" Quinn asked.

"With Mikey," Santana told her.

"Where?"

"And daddy,"

"You're with your dad? Where abouts? Britt and I will come and get you,"

"No, I don't like Brittany, she was mean to me and she promised that she would never be mean to me,"

"San, put your dad on?" there was a muffled sound and Emilio soon answered, "Emilio, is San okay?"

"She's fine, I was working at the hospital and one of the doctors brought her to me. She's got Mikey with her but she seemed pretty upset, what happened?"

"Long story but Brittany was having an argument with Aletta and said something she shouldn't have, Santana heard and got upset."

"Alright Quinn, just come to the hospital with Brittany. Santana is fine but just a little upset," Quinn thanked him and hung up before heading over to find Brittany so that she could tell her the good news. She'd just come out of the cafe. The hospital was quite far from the park so they headed back to Quinn's house and took Quinn's car. Emilio was on a break, sitting in the waiting room with Santana who was cuddling Mikey in her arms. Quinn rushed straight up and hugged her.

"Baby, you scared me," she said, "Don't ever run off like that again, do you understand me?"

"Santana," Brittany whispered as she walked over.

"Go away," Santana mumbled and hung her head.

"I'm sorry alright? I didn't mean to upset you,"

"San, listen," Quinn said as she knelt in front of her friend, "Can I tell you a secret?" she asked knowing that Santana liked secrets, "Brittany said that and she shouldn't have but after you left the house, she actually said what a lovely girl you were and how she loved you very much."

"Lying,"

"No I'm not, you know I don't tell lies. I promise, that is what she said." Santana looked up at Brittany who nodded with a smile.

"Mom wouldn't let me look after the baby,"

"I'm getting fed up of Aletta," Emilio sighed.

"I tried talking to her," Brittany mentioned, "She didn't listen."

"I want to go home now," Santana said as she snuggled up to her dad who nodded and kissed his head. He was allowed to get off early so whilst Quinn and Brittany went back to Quinn's house to give them some time alone, Emilio took Santana back.

"You go on upstairs with Mikey," he told her. She nodded and headed upstairs whilst he went into the kitchen; "Santana is fine by the way," Aletta was silent and continued watching Felix with Lucia who was fast asleep, "What on earth is wrong with you?"

"Nothing, just drop it Emilio,"

"No, you've crossed the line," he said angrily, "I'm leaving, and I'm taking Santana with me."


	21. Bonding Time

Twenty One: Bonding Time

"We're leaving first thing tomorrow morning," Emilio told his wife as they sat together on the couch. The kids were upstairs doing their own thing but they were staying down to talk about their sudden leave, "I'm sorry Aletta but I can't have Santana living here anymore; you're not exactly nice to her and she's meant to be your daughter."

"I just don't know how to deal with her autism, I do try but I find it so hard. She acts like she's four and she isn't."

"That's why we need to help her; can't you see she has one of the more severe types of autism? She will have to be looked after for the rest of her life, I don't mind doing that but I'm not so sure about you."

"I'm sorry Emilio, I really am but..." she sighed, "I don't know."

"We're leaving and that's final, if you want then you can go up and talk to Santana," Aletta didn't answer him but headed upstairs to her daughters room. She wasn't in there but a small gurgle from Lucia made her walk into the nursery. Santana was sitting in the rocking chair in the corner, cradling her baby sister gently and talking to her. She then looked up and got quite scared, seeing that it was her mother.

"She was coughing," Santana whispered, "I...I just wanted to see if she was okay."

"You did the right thing, she probably needs changing," Santana nodded and handed Lucia over before going to leave the nursery, "Stay, you can watch me change her if you like. That way, you'll soon be able to change her on your own."

"Really?" Aletta nodded and took Lucia over to the changing table, Santana following, "She's cute."

"She looks just like you when you were a baby," Aletta tapped her on the nose and smiled as she undressed her daughter.

"Does she really?" Aletta nodded and got Lucia into a new diaper after disposing of the old one, "Sorry if I've annoyed you Mom."

"You haven't annoyed me honey, I just find it quite difficult at times. You did great with your sister though, eh?"

"I didn't want her being upset,"

"I'm going to miss you," Aletta held Lucia to her chest and hugged Santana with her arm, "Look; I know I have never been a brilliant mom to you Santana and I am so sorry about that, I just want you to know that...that wherever you go with your dad, I will always be your mom and I will always love you."

"I don't want to leave Mom; I like it here and I've only just got used to it,"

"Then stay, I'll be a better mom to you I promise,"

"But Daddy wants to leave,"

"Then I'll talk to him but I think we need to start with some ice cream, don't you?" Santana nodded with a smile.

Aletta realised how much she'd been missing out on Santana's life. Santana had missed spending time with her mom so put on her best dress and went out for ice cream with her. Emilio stayed at home to look after Felix and Lucia, pleased that his wife and daughter were out together.

"So, how's school been?" Aletta asked as Santana licked at her ice cream.

"Good," she smiled, "I like working with Lisa and my classes are awesome,"

"What classes do you take then?"

"I have Drama, Art, Geography, History, Health Class, Spanish and I take Science, Math and English with Lisa. They're my special classes and I love them, I love Glee Club too though."

"I bet you're a good singer,"

"I haven't really sung yet but Mr Schue allows me to help out and stuff, it's really cool,"

"I bet it is; have you got a lot of friends?"

"Not really," Santana said, "Just Quinn and Brittany; Brittany is my girlfriend now though, we haven't been on a kissing date yet though,"

"A kissing date? What's one of those?"

"You know where you do kissy faces at each other and touch lips and do tongues; Quinn has told me heaps about tonguing, it sounds gross, she does it with Puck and I don't really get it. She says she loves him, I don't understand."

"You'll soon learn about love and what it's like, are you enjoying your ice cream?"

"Too cold and there are bits in it,"

"They're small strawberry bits, they taste nice. Why don't you try them?" Santana tried a bit and smiled, taking some more licks, "Nice?"

"Very nice, daddy always gets me the same ice cream which is vanilla. I like strawberry."

"Santana, you need to try and stop calling him daddy alright?" Aletta said nicely.

"But he is my daddy,"

"I know but for a big girl like you it doesn't sound very grown up, I know he tells you to call him it but why don't we have a go at calling him dad?" Santana nodded, "There are a lot of things we could try with you, to get you a bit more independent."

"Like what?"

"Well, maybe try going out on your own without getting panicky, giving you more responsibilities and having you get to bed on your own without any help. I'm sure Quinn and Brittany would like that to help as well."

"We could give it a go Mom,"

"That's my big girl."

"Mom," Santana whispered, "I love you."

"Yeah," Aletta smiled with a tear in her eye, "I love you too sweetheart."


	22. Teaching and Arguing

Twenty Two: Teaching and Arguing

Aletta signed onto Facebook and looked over Santana's last status. It read: _am going to try and go to bed on my own tonight_. Aletta smiled as she saw that Quinn had commented, congratulating her and saying well done. Aletta decided to reply to keep Quinn updated with _didn't actually manage it Quinn but we are still trying_.

"I'm ready for school," Santana said; going into the living room, "You said you were taking me this morning."

"And I am," Aletta got off the computer and walked towards her, "Let me just get my coat; have you got everything?" Santana nodded, "Good, said goodbye to your dad?" she nodded again, "Let's be off then, come on."

"I have Glee Club today, remember?"

"I'll remember."

Quinn was stood waiting for Santana once they arrived at school. Santana rushed up to hug her straight away; she was never usually like it with people apart from Quinn and Brittany. Aletta loved seeing Santana hanging out with people.

"Hey babe," Quinn hugged her and ruffled her hair, "Good to see that you're bonding with your mom."

"Yeah, she took me out for ice cream and Daddy decided not to move just yet. He said he's going to give Mom a chance."

"That's good then, I would have missed you. Come on, Brittany's in the gym," she took Santana's hand in hers and they walked towards the gym. Brittany was inside, dancing and Santana's eyes widened when she saw her. Quinn placed her bag down on the bench and before she could stop Santana, Santana had thrown her bag down and raced over to join in with Brittany. Brittany smiled at her girlfriend and began dancing with her, spinning her round on the spot and picking her up as well. Quinn watched; smiling as the two of them danced together.

"You're a well good dancer," Brittany told Santana once they'd finished.

"That was great guys," Quinn congratulated them as they came to sit with her.

"Isn't she a great dancer?" Brittany asked.

"Yeah, I've always said she is," Quinn said and hugged Santana, "She's my little ballerina," Santana just laughed.

"Can you sing?" Brittany asked and Santana shook her head.

"Yeah you can, I've heard you sing before," Quinn told her, "You just need a little bit more practice with your notes but if you do that; you'll be great."

"We can help," Brittany offered, "I can help with the dancing and Quinn can help with the singing; you'll be great."

"Yeah, you'll have your own teachers," Quinn smiled at Santana, "It'll be fun."

"We'll start off with one of my favourite songs," Brittany rushed over to the stereo to turn her CD on.

"Not too loud Britt," Quinn warned her. Brittany nodded and turned the volume down, just as hit me baby one more time by Britney Spears came on, "How did I know that it'd be Britney?" Quinn giggled. Santana clamped her hands over her ears, "You okay San? Little loud?" she nodded, "Britt!" Brittany looked over, "Turn it down," Quinn mouthed.

"Sorry," She apologised and turned down the music once again, "Is that okay?"

"That better?" Quinn asked and Santana nodded, "Yeah, thanks Britt,"

"No problem; Santana, come over here," Santana went over to Brittany and stood next to her, "Now, this is one of my favourite songs so we are going to start like this okay?" Brittany got into the beginning position and Santana copied, stumbling a little, "Quinn can have you singing it soon and you'll be able to perform it in Glee Club. Now the next bit is a little more difficult, kinda have to reach up with one hand, then the next, then kinda bend and flick your hair. Let me stop the CD and we'll try it without the music," Brittany raced over and stopped the CD.

"It's no use Brittany; I can't dance like you,"

"Yeah you can," Brittany went to hug her, "Come on; we'll try again."

"Don't touch me," Santana defended and went into her own little bubble once again. Brittany nodded and folded her arms.

"Britt, just leave it," Quinn sighed and walked over, "Don't force her to dance if she doesn't want to; you have to understand that Santana likes her own space and you're being ever so clingy."

"I'm not," Brittany answered back, "I just want to spend some time with my girlfriend and have some fun with her."

"Yeah but Santana isn't like you and you know that," Quinn said, "I'm sorry B. I know you love her and you want to spend time with her but...she isn't like everyone else and you know that."

"We're going to be late for class," Santana told Quinn, "It starts in two minutes and 34 seconds."

"I know babe; we'll get going, come on," Quinn gestured for Santana to follow her and went to collect their stuff, "Do you want your jacket on?" Santana nodded and Quinn slipped it on her before handing over her backpack, "Come on; coming Britt?"

"No," Brittany shook her head, "I might dance a bit more."

"Sure," Quinn walked towards the door and Santana followed her. Brittany watched them go before getting back to her dancing.


	23. Glee Club

Twenty Three: Glee Club

"That's brilliant, that is," Quinn told Santana in Glee Club. They were waiting for Mr Schue and Santana was drawing a picture of a monkey in her sketchpad. Brittany was surprised that Santana hadn't said anything about her and Quinn's argument in the gym or asked how she was but she'd researched autism as soon as she found out and apparently, it was common for autistic people not to understand other people's feelings and stuff like that. She could tell that she didn't understand what had happened, that the argument was about her, "Is it a picture of one of your toy monkeys?"

"No, just a monkey because I like them," Santana said, "What's your favourite animal Quinn?"

"Hmm, I would have to say a dog,"

"Would you like a dog?" Quinn nodded, "Then why don't you have one? I'd have a monkey if I could but it's illegal to keep monkeys as pets,"

"I don't know why I don't have a dog," Quinn told her, "I don't think Mom would be too pleased."

"Is she allergic to dogs as well as cats?"

"No, I just don't think she's that keen on animals really,"

"I like animals,"

"Yeah," Quinn smiled. Mr Schue soon walked in with a handful of letters for each of them. He called Santana up to the front so Santana closed her sketchpad and put it away in her bag along with her pencil before going up to him.

"Can you hand these out to everyone?" he asked and handed her the letters, "Including yourself." Santana nodded and gave Quinn one first before going along to everyone else and keeping one for her.

"What are they?" she asked once she'd done.

"You'll soon see; now sit down," Santana obeyed and sat next to Quinn; reading over her letter whilst Mr Schue spoke, "Each of you have a letter about an upcoming Glee trip that I have managed to sort out with Principal Figgins. It will be a camping trip so we'll be staying in tents for the whole weekend. Myself and Miss Pillsbury will be chaperoning and we will be taking the bus."

"Camping?" Rachel smiled, "Seriously?"

"Seriously, the letter has everything that you will need to bring and your parents just have to sign the bottom, saying if you can go or not."

"Can you write in my diary?" Santana asked Quinn who nodded. Lisa had provided Santana with a homework diary, it was so her teachers could write her homework and any information in it for her parents to see and check off. Santana handed her diary and a pen to Quinn.

"Right," Quinn said as she turned to a blank page, "I am just going to write that there is a letter in your bag about a Glee camping trip," Quinn told her, "And that it needs to be signed by either Mom or Dad to say whether you can go or not."

"Write what um...me...I need to take as well,"

"I've mentioned the letter so they can read the letter to find out that information okay?" Santana nodded, "Would you like to go?"

"Yeah I would, I went camping with my cousins when I was eight and it was really fun,"

"Well, just show this to your parents and they'll have a look at the letter for you,"

"Thank you Quinn."

Brittany sighed as she looked over at the two best friends. Even though she was now dating Santana, Santana still hated it when she touched her or crowded her. She couldn't help but feel like the third wheel of the group. She couldn't help but feel slightly jealous of Santana, not because she had autism but because of how close she was with Quinn. Brittany had had a crush on Quinn ever since she was little and Quinn knew that and yet, had stayed friends with us. Santana was almost like Quinn's girlfriend though, Quinn called her babe, hugged and kissed her, helped her out and treated her like a little sister and Brittany hated it. She wanted that relationship with Quinn and she couldn't get it unless she was like Santana.

**Okay a little inside on how Brittany feels there, I thought it'd be good if she feels a bit like the third wheel, even though she and Santana are dating. Anyway, I will try and update soon so stay tuned. **


	24. Bus Journey

Twenty Four: Bus Journey

"Looking forward to camping then?" Brittany asked Santana on the morning of the trip. They were all standing outside school early on the Friday morning whilst Mr Schue and Miss Pillsbury took permission slips and got the bus set up. Santana nodded as she sat on the brick wall, drawing, "I've never actually been camping before, do you want to sit with me?"

"You and Quinn," Santana said.

"I think the bus only has two seaters though," Brittany shrugged, "You can only sit with one of us."

"No, there's the back seat which has five," Santana pointed out, "You can sit by the window, I'll sit in the middle, Quinn sits on the other side." Brittany faintly nodded as Quinn came over after giving her and Santana's permission slip into Mr Schue, "Quinn, I'm sitting between you and Brittany."

"That's fine; do you want to get on the bus? I just need a word with B," Santana nodded and got all her stuff before running over, "You okay?" Quinn asked Brittany.

"I guess," she whispered.

"What's wrong? I wasn't yelling at you in the Gym the other day, I was just pointing out some stuff,"

"I guess I just feel like the third wheel, you're so close with San and she's my girlfriend. She still isn't as close with me as she is with you,"

"I'm just looking out for San, you had this stupid crush on me a while back which lasted for about a week and I don't want you to do that to San. She's never had a proper girlfriend before and I don't want you to fall in love with her only to find out it's just a crush. She's my best friend."

"But I do love her; I just wish that I could be close with her like you are,"

"You can be, you just need to let her have her space; she doesn't like people clinging to her or crowding her. She wants to sit with you, doesn't she?"

"And you," Brittany whispered.

"Is that so bad?" Quinn asked, "Are you jealous of me or something?"

"A little, I just want the relationship that you have with San; I don't get what made you so close."

"We weren't when we were younger," Quinn admitted, "I stuck up for her after some boys were beating her up and she began to talk to me."

"I did that though and she still barely talks to me,"

"Why are you so desperate to be friends with her? Just give her space and she will soon come round, it took ages for her to become so close with me,"

"Why is she the only one you are nice to?" Quinn was silent and folded her arms whilst flicking her hair, "Face it Quinn; you're a bitch," her eyes widened, "You are horrible to most people but when Santana's around, you go all fake and act all nice."

"Bitchy is who I am," Quinn whispered, "But do you really think I'm going to be like that with San?"

"You can sit with her," Brittany sighed, "I'll sit on my own." Quinn went to speak but Brittany shoved past her and got straight on the bus. Quinn picked up her bag before following and taking the back seat where Santana was.

"Where's Brittany?" she asked. Quinn felt terrible, Santana really did want to sit with her girlfriend as well, "She was going to sit next to the window."

"Sorry babe, Brittany's sitting on her own," Quinn said and sat next to Santana, "It's just us two."

"Why isn't she sitting with us? Doesn't she like me?"

"No, it...it's not you," Quinn reassured her, "Brittany loves you to bits; it...it's me really, we've had a small fight."

"What about?"

"Guys!" Mr Schue called to the bus, "Is everyone listening?" Everyone was silent, "The bus will be leaving in about five minutes and the journey is about two hours and we will only be making one stop on the way and that will be about it I'm afraid."

"What about?" Santana repeated once Mr Schue stopped talking. The bus soon started moving, "Mr Schue lied; that left in about three minutes, not five."

"Sweetie; do you really love Brittany?" Quinn asked Santana, "Like, as you call it...would you go on a kissing date?" Santana nodded, "That's...That's what we were arguing about, Brittany doesn't feel that you're that close with her."

"So, it was about me," she whispered and hung her head.

"No," Quinn shook her head, "Not you; Brittany feels a little jealous about what good friends we are and she...she's just a bit upset with me because I'm such good friends with you. Brittany used to be in love with me."

"Used to?"

"It was just a small crush,"

"I don't understand,"

"It's a long story," Quinn told her, "But Brittany would just like it if you and her could hang out a bit more; she feels a little jealous and a bit like the third wheel."

"But she isn't round and how do you know she isn't first? There are three of us so how do you know she's the third?"

"It means she feels left out; you know how that feels don't you?" Santana nodded, "I just, I know you like your own space babe but Brittany would love it if you would hang out with her more. She just wants to be your friend." Santana nodded, "Understand what I'm saying?"

"Yeah, Daddy said I was always popular,"

"Yeah, course you're popular," Quinn held her arms out and Santana gave her a hug, "Listen, you will always be my best friend. Brittany is your girlfriend though and I...I can't look after you forever I'm afraid."

"Why?"

"Because things change, if I could, I would totally adopt you," Santana laughed, "You're so sweet and I would so have you as my little sister if I could, I can't though can I? You need to make more friends and hang out with more people, including Brittany."

"Got it," Santana nodded.

"Got it?" Quinn copied her, "Good."


	25. Start of the Trip

Twenty Five: Start of the Trip

"Okay guys," Mr Schue said as everyone huddled round. They'd been off the bus for a while now and everyone had piled their stuff into the big cabin where Mr Schue, Miss Pillsbury and Lisa were staying. Lisa had ended up coming on the trip as well so she could keep an eye on Santana. They were to set up their tents later, "I would like you to split off into groups for our first activity, orienteering." Everyone cheered and immediately got into groups, "Quinn and Brittany, can you two go with Santana?" they nodded, "Tents are to be shared between three and we will put them up later on after we've all had dinner. Come and collect your map, compass and travel bag."

"I'll go and get it," Quinn offered and headed up to collect the things from Mr Schue.

Brittany walked ahead on the hike whilst Quinn walked behind helping Santana walk along this log whilst holding her hand. Brittany didn't seem too bothered and just ignored them.

"Are you going to have a chat with B?" Quinn asked; helping Santana down from the log.

"I don't know what to say," she admitted.

"Just say that you want to go out with her; I know it isn't easy because you don't really understand the whole dating thing that well, dating is basically wanting to spend time with that person and wanting to go out with them. Brittany wants that but you don't that much, you need to give what she wants back to her."

"Brittany!" Santana called and Brittany turned round after hearing her voice. Santana left Quinn and ran over, Brittany smiled and placed an arm round the Latina's shoulder, letting her rest her head on her, "I love you."

"You too sweetie," she smiled and peered over her shoulder at Quinn.

"There's a clue!" Santana yelled and ran over to a tall tree. Up in the leaves was a letter. Mr Schue had placed clues on each different route which they had to try and solve to try on the way back to camp, "Can I get it?"

"Oh San, be careful," Quinn said as she caught up with them.

"I'll give you a leg up," Brittany bent down and locked her fingers together; having Santana step onto her hands and get up onto the lowest tree trunk, "You got it?" Santana nodded.

"San, don't go too high please," Quinn panicked. Santana managed to grab the letter and get back down the tree, "Thank god, what does it say?"

"Need some help?" Brittany asked Santana.

"Let her do it," Quinn mouthed as Santana sat down on a rock, scanning over the letter, "What does it say San?"

"Um...name...three...ty...pes...types of...ap...ples..."

"Apples," Quinn corrected her and Santana nodded, "Read it then."

"Name three types of apples," Santana re read with a smile.

"Go on then," Quinn smiled.

"Actually, I have quite a few and all in alphabetical order as well," Quinn rolled her eyes as Santana pulled a notebook from her pocket and began reading her list of apples, "Aceymac apple, Adam's pearmain apple, adanac apple, aerlies red flesh apple, akane apple..."

"She's well bright," Brittany told Quinn quietly.

"Things stick in her head," Quinn told her, "She notes them down, San!" Santana looked up, "We only need three so why don't you pick your favourites yeah?"

"Sure," she nodded, "How about Granny Smith, Golden Delicious and...Pink Lady?"

"Sounds good, shall we get going then?"

"I don't see the point in these questions," Brittany sighed as they continued walking.

"I think it was just a fun thing that Mr Schue set up for us," Quinn said, "San seems to know the answers anyway; I did talk to her by the way," Brittany nodded and smiled thankfully, "She just doesn't understand dating, I explained it to her and she...she's going to give it a go."

"Found the other clue!" Santana screamed and reached under a rock where a bit of letter was sticking out, "You can read it this time Brittany."

"No sweetie," Brittany laughed, "I'll let you read it; you seem to know the answers."

"Okay, um...which is the river that runs through Egypt? That's easy, the Nile."

"I didn't know that," Brittany whispered in Quinn's ear.

"Come on," Quinn bent down in front of Santana and had her jump up onto her back, "Where now?"

"Straight ahead," Quinn nodded and gave Santana a piggy back through the woods, "Any more clues to find?"

"I don't think so," Quinn shook her head, "I think now; it's just back to camp."

Because of Santana's knowledge, the three of them were the first to make it back before the other groups and Mr Schue allowed them to try and set their tent up. Quinn and Santana had both been camping before so Brittany watched whilst they set the tent up together. Quinn messed around with Santana, throwing the ends of the tent over her head so she couldn't see. She knew that Santana wanted to try out their relationship and she was pleased.

"Quinn," Brittany was awake that night whilst Santana slept in the middle of them, cuddling a stuffed monkey, "Quinn, are you awake?"

"Yeah," she groaned wearily; rubbing at her eyes, "What's wrong?"

"I can't sleep," she shrugged, "Thanks for...Thanks for talking to San for me, it meant a lot."

"No problem," Quinn yawned, "I'm going back to sleep; Mr Schue said we need to get up early tomorrow morning."

"Sure," Brittany nodded.

She went to lie back down when there was a sudden loud bang, followed by a couple of others. Santana woke up screaming and Quinn and Brittany also jumped and woke up. Quinn rushed straight out to see what was going on and everyone else had seemed to do the same thing.

"What's going on?" Puck asked as he and Finn came out of their tent.

"It's just people letting off some fireworks," Mr Schue calmed them all.

"God Santana," Quinn thought and quickly hurried into the tent to see Santana screaming and crying, rocking back and forth whilst Brittany tried to calm her down. Brittany had her arm wrapped round Santana, rubbing small circles up and down her back whilst whispering soothingly in her ear, "San," Quinn went to help the Latina but remembered the conversation earlier. She didn't want to intervene on their moment together so she quickly backed out of the couch. She hated to leave Santana but she was hoping that if Brittany managed to calm her down, Santana would learn to trust her more.

"San, calm down," Brittany soothed as Santana continued sobbing hysterically, hands clamped over her ears, "San, it's just fireworks," Brittany told her, "It's just fireworks, please calm down." The bangs soon stopped and Brittany sighed a sigh of relief, "San, they've stopped now," Brittany stated the obvious to her, "They've stopped," she said and Santana removed her hands, holding onto her monkey and letting her sobs subside, "It's okay."

"Brittany!" Lisa called and peered into the tent, "Is she okay?"

"I...I think so," Brittany stuttered. She'd never been so scared in all her life but she knew that she needed to stay strong for Santana, the state she was in, "She...She's stopped screaming."

"Feel sick," Santana managed. It was common for her to feel sick after screaming loudly so Lisa gestured for Brittany to bring her out of the tent.

"Come on sweetie," Lisa told Santana, "We'll go and get you a hot chocolate in the cabin, alright?"

"Can Brittany come?" Santana asked and Lisa nodded, allowing Brittany to follow them, "I feel sick." Santana coughed.

"You'll feel better soon," Brittany comforted, wiping a tear away from Santana's eye, "We'll get you a hot chocolate and that'll make you feel much better." Santana nodded and held onto Lisa and Brittany as they went into the cabin.

"Are you okay Santana?" Miss Pillsbury asked as Santana nodded and sat down at a table with Brittany. Mr Schue soon walked back in and shut the door.

"Everyone's back in their tents," he said, "There you are Brittany; I wondered where you'd gone."

"I just came to see if San was okay; she wanted me to come,"

"You alright Santana?" Mr Schue asked and she nodded as Lisa placed a warm mug of hot chocolate in front of her.

"Thank you," she sniffled, "Can I sleep in here tonight?"

"They won't be going off again," Mr Schue warned her, "Besides, Quinn and Brittany need you with them."

"You'll be fine with us," Brittany whispered as Santana sipped at the drink, "They all gave us a bit of a shock I think, eh? They were loud."

"Puck thought it was a gun shot," Mr Schue rolled his eyes at Miss Pillsbury.

"He would do," she laughed.

"Was it a gun shot?" Santana asked.

"No, it was just some silly people letting off fireworks," Lisa reassured her, "You don't need to worry; now how about you finish your hot chocolate and then I'll take you and Brittany back to your tent? I bet Quinn's worrying."

"Will you stay with me?"

"I have to sleep in here," Lisa said, "But you will have Brittany and Quinn with you,"

"And this little guy," Brittany gestured to the monkey, "Is that the one I made for you?"

"Yeah, it's my best one,"

"That's sweet," Brittany smiled and turned to Lisa, "Can I have a hot chocolate before we go back?"

"Course you can Brittany," Lisa said and went to make Brittany a drink as well.


	26. Rock Climbing

Twenty Six: Rock Climbing

"Mr Schue said that we're doing rock climbing today," Quinn told Santana as she helped the Latina tie her shoelaces, "You'll enjoy that; you're a good climber." Santana nodded as Mr Schue called Quinn over, "Um...Brittany!" Brittany ran over, "Help San tie her laces would you? Back in a bit sweetie," she ruffled Santana's hair and ran over to Mr Schue.

"Quinn said we're doing rock climbing," Santana smiled at Brittany as the blonde knelt down to tie her shoe laces.

"We are," Brittany nodded, "Are you excited?"

"Yeah, Quinn says that I am a good climber. Do you think that's true?"

"Yeah, you climbed the tree to get the clue didn't you?"

"Yeah, that was fun," she laughed. Quinn soon came back over with Lisa and a bag of things, "Hey Lisa!"

"Hey Santana, I'm in charge of you three whilst rock climbing."

"Are we in groups for that too?" Brittany questioned and finished off helping Santana with her shoes.

"Yeah, these are the groups that you'll be in for all activities," Santana stood up and hugged Brittany who hugged her back, "Are we all set then? There are three rock climbing walls and we'll be on the one just over there," she pointed over towards the woods, "I know where it is and the instructor will be there waiting for us."

"I'm well excited," Santana told Quinn.

"You can show me a thing or two," Brittany laughed, "I've never done rock climbing before."

"It's fun," Quinn mentioned.

They soon arrived at the rock climbing wall and the instructor talked through the rules with them. Santana was getting impatient so Quinn had to keep her still, once he'd finished the talk; Lisa had a word with him about what was wrong with Santana so he was aware.

"Okay, who wants to go first?" he asked the three girls and Santana raised her hand straight away, "Come on then, what's your name?"

"Santana," she told him.

"So you're Santana, well, shall we have your teacher get the harness on you then?" he asked handing the harness to Lisa. Lisa had told him that she wasn't keen on strangers touching her so he'd shown Lisa how to work the harness so she could get it on Santana, "Ready then?" Santana nodded, "Just take your time and step up onto each rock, have you done climbing before?"

"I climb trees," she said.

"Great, up you go and I'll have hold of the rope and you just let me know when you want to come back down,"

"Go on San!" Quinn yelled as she and Brittany sat watching whilst Santana stepped up onto the first stone, making her way up the wall.

"I didn't expect her to be such a good climber," Brittany said.

"She has her surprises," Quinn giggled, "She's amazing at climbing; she's climbed heaps of trees before."

"No wonder she likes monkeys so much."

Santana soon managed to make it to the top without any trouble at all. Lisa and the instructor helped her down and she went to sit next to Quinn whilst Brittany took her turn on the wall. Everyone could tell that she was nervous.

"Don't be scared Brittany," Santana laughed, "It's fine; you won't hurt yourself, you don't need to be scared."

"Hey," Quinn tapped Santana on the shoulder, "That's not very nice yeah? Don't say that or laugh at people,"

"Sorry," she apologised, "She is scared though."

"You don't need to point that out to her," Quinn said.

"Alright," Santana nodded and continued to watch as Brittany climbed the wall. She only made it halfway before coming back down, "Well done Brittany," Santana smiled and hugged her until it was Quinn's turn. She also made it to the top but she'd gone camping before unlike Brittany.

"You all did a great job," the instructor told them, "Well done."

"I was the best," Santana told Quinn who just shook her head at her and laughed.

"Come on girls," Lisa smiled, "Let's get back to camp and see if the others have finished yet or not."

"Can we have hot chocolate?" Santana asked.

"I don't see why not," Lisa said as they headed back to camp.


	27. Night Time Talk

Twenty Seven: Night Time Talk

"Quinn, can I ask you something?" Santana asked whilst the two of them sat in the tent getting ready for bed. Santana was sitting in her clothes from that day whilst Quinn brushed her hair for her. Brittany was using the bathroom in the cabin.

"You can ask me anything gorgeous," Quinn said and put the hairbrush down before handing her a pair of pyjamas, "Get changed; do you need any help?"

"I'll try and do it on my own," Santana said and fiddled with the shirt.

"Alright, now what do you want to ask me?"

"Is Brittany jealous?" Santana asked, "Of me? She didn't want you to sit with us on the bus but I wanted you to because you're my best friend and then after rock climbing, she didn't say much to me."

"Do you think that's because you were laughing at her?"

"I didn't mean to," Santana whined; looking close to bursting into tears.

"Hey, I was joking," Quinn told her, "You know what though? I think Brittany is a little jealous of you and do you want to know why?" Santana nodded, "Because you are very, very special and everybody loves you, eh?"

"Special how?" Santana questioned as she'd slipped on her pyjama bottoms and was struggling with her shirt.

"You're funny, smart..."

"I'm not!" Santana cut her off.

"Hell yeah you are; sweetie, you have your shirt on backwards, come over here," Santana walked over to Quinn and had her swivel her shirt round, "That's better, silly devil," Quinn tickled her and gave her a hug, "Aw; you're a sweetheart, you are."

"Are we always going to be best friends Quinn?"

"Of course," Quinn said; feeling tears in her eyes and kissing Santana's forehead whilst giving her hair another brush, "Course we are."

"Yay!" Santana threw her arms round Quinn, invading her personal space but then looked up to see tears in the blonde's eyes. "Why are you crying Quinn?"

"I just love you so much," she sniffed and stroked at Santana's hair, "Shall we get you to bed then?" Santana shook her head, "Why not? It's been a long day and you need your sleep," Santana still shook her head, "Come on,"

"But what if those loud bangs go off again?"

"They won't honestly," Brittany then came into the tent dressed in her pyjamas, after using the bathroom, "Hey Britt."

"Have you been crying?" Brittany asked but Quinn shook her head, "Quinn, I can tell you have."

"I have a little bit," Quinn admitted, "I'm fine though, really."

"Sure?" Quinn nodded and sat down next to Santana who was lying in her sleeping bag. She'd just about drifted off to sleep so Quinn decided to explain to Brittany, "Just feeling sad about Santana, you know?" she sniffed as Brittany sat opposite her, "With her autism, she's just so childlike and I...She's going to have to be looked after for the rest of her life and I...I don't know, I just feel so bad for her. I just get emotional when she goes all clingy and hugs me; she asked if we'd be best friends forever."

"And you will be, yeah?" Brittany smiled, "Why do you get emotional?"

"I don't know, she just...she knows she's special," Quinn said, "She just doesn't know she's special as in poorly special and she seems happy enough and...I don't know," she shrugged. Brittany hugged her comfortingly.

"It'll be okay," Brittany reassured her, "She has us as friends."

"Thanks Britt; I...I don't want you feeling jealous of San again,"

"I just...It's easy for her really, I'm not that smart with my classes and the teachers think I'm stupid but with her; she gets help with it, it just seems easy for her and I just feel a little jealous."

"Please don't feel jealous," Quinn shook her head, "I don't like it."

"I won't," Brittany said and gave Quinn one last hug, "Come on; let's get some sleep."


	28. Bus Crash

Twenty Eight: Bus Crash

"So guys, it is the last night of our trip," Mr Schue sighed as they sat round a campfire roasting marshmallows, "Which is why I thought we'd have the last night with having marshmallows and singing songs." Everyone cheered and Santana held up a pink marshmallow to Quinn.

"Don't you want it?" Quinn asked her.

"I don't like the pink ones," she said as Quinn took it, "Only the white ones."

"Don't they taste the same?" Brittany asked.

"No," Santana shook her head, "They taste differently."

"I never realised," Brittany said as she popped a white marshmallow into her mouth, "How can you tell?"

"Because I can,"

"You looking forward to going home babe?" Quinn asked Santana; knowing that she got home sick sometimes.

"Yeah," Santana nodded as she rested her head on Quinn's shoulder, "Mikey will be missing me."

"I'm sure he will, he'll be asking your dad 'when will Sannie be coming home?'"

"Don't be silly," Santana giggled, "Cats can't talk."

"Lord Tubbington can," Brittany pointed out.

"You're silly though,"

"Hey," Quinn playfully hit Santana's arm, "Don't be rude," Santana stuck her tongue out, "Stop it. You'll be stuck like that if the wind changes."

"No," Santana put her tongue back in held a hand to her mouth, turning to Brittany with a worried look.

"I was joking," Quinn told her friend, "Don't worry about it."

They had to get up early the next morning for the bus and Quinn had a hard time waking Santana. She'd woken up and was really moody and tired. Quinn had managed to make her get dressed and was now doing her hair.

"Stop!" Santana whined and hit Quinn.

"Hey," she soothed in a calm voice, "Just let me brush your hair; we need to meet Mr Schue by the bus in less than ten minutes. Are you packed?" Santana shook her head, "San," Quinn whined.

"Sorry, did I miss breakfast?" Quinn nodded, "Drat, you can help me pack yeah?"

"I'll have to, won't I?" Quinn finished off brushing her hair and grabbed Santana's bag, "But you're helping me. Just tell me where everything goes and I'll pack it for you," Santana nodded and handed Quinn her pyjamas, telling her where they went in the bag. Soon, Quinn had packed up for her with three minutes to spare, "Come on or we'll be late."

"What about the tents?"

"They're not our tents," Quinn said as they arrived at the bus. Mr Schue was waiting for them and got them both on the bus, this time Brittany had decided to sit with them and had the back seat saved, "Hey Britt; finally got this one ready."

"I was wondering where you two are," Brittany gave Santana a hug and let her sit between her and Quinn, "I told Mr Schue to keep the bus waiting." Quinn thanked her as they drove away.

"I'm going to miss it here," Santana said, "I like camping."

"Yeah?" Quinn asked and she nodded, "I enjoyed it too; it's more fun with you though, isn't it?"

"Yeah," she smiled, "Because I'm fun."

"Yeah."

They'd been driving for half an hour and Santana had her head rested on Brittany's shoulder when the bus suddenly jolted and swerved and there was a loud sudden crash. Quinn fell from the seat as well as several others and Santana jumped up as Brittany's head whacked against the window.

"What the hell was that?" Finn asked.

"Everybody stay here," Mr Schue said and climbed off the bus with the driver and Lisa.

"What happened?" Santana started crying as Puck helped Quinn up from the floor and Brittany soothed at her sore head.

"Santana," Quinn ignored her sore neck and turned towards her friend who was crying, "Come here babe; come over here," Santana went over and hugged Quinn, clinging to her tightly, "It's okay, are you hurt?" Santana shook her head, "Just a bit shaken up? Come on."

"Brittany," she cried.

"Come and sit down," Quinn sat down on the back seat and had Santana on her lap, "Britt; are you okay?"

"I...I think so, my head hurts a little,"

"I'm scared," Santana sniffled.

"Yeah," Quinn smiled, "So am I secretly; we all are, but it's going to be okay isn't it?" she shook her head, "Yes it will."

"Your neck," Santana managed.

"It'll be fine," Quinn reassured her and kissed her cheek as Mr Schue came back onto the bus. The driver was still outside, "Mr Schue's back now," Quinn stated the obvious.

"Is everything okay Mr Schue?" Finn asked.

"Yeah," he nodded, "drunk driver hit us; is everyone okay?" Lisa came to the back to check how Santana was and saw that she was upset.

"She's fine," Quinn told her, "Just a little shaken up."

"I want to go home," she whimpered.

"We will be home, we need to stop by a hospital on the way back though to get checked out," Lisa said and turned to Quinn, "Are you okay Quinn?"

"Yeah, neck hurts a bit,"

"Brittany?"

"My head hurts,"

"I want to go home," Santana repeated.

"I know," Quinn held her closer, "It'll be okay though, cuddle up to me and Brittany and you'll be fine."

"Come here," Brittany patted the space next to her and Santana cuddled up to her. Quinn pulled a blanket from her bag and draped it over Santana, kissing her cheek, "You'll be fine, eh?" Santana nodded, "Just calm down."

"Thanks Britt," Quinn smiled at the blonde.


	29. Aftermath of the Crash

Twenty Nine: Aftermath of the Crash

Santana as well as plenty of others seemed okay when they arrived at the hospital. Brittany needed stitches in her head and Finn needed to be cleaned up because he'd cut his face but apart from that, everyone seemed alright. Rachel sat in the waiting room with Santana, playing with a bunch of building blocks whilst they waited for everyone. Mr Schue and Lisa were getting coffee whilst everyone else just read magazines or stayed with Brittany, Quinn and Finn. Quinn soon came back and Santana ran to hug her.

"Hey babe, I'm okay," she smiled, "My neck's fine,"

"You alright?" Rachel asked who was still fiddling with the blocks.

"The doctor said I'll be fine, Brittany needs stitches unfortunately. Thanks for looking after her,"

"No problem, she was worried about you,"

"I'm okay," Quinn reassured Santana and kissed her cheek, sitting down on the floor with her and Rachel, "What have you been doing?"

"Just playing with these blocks," Rachel sighed, "The magazines are quite out of date and Santana wanted to keep the red one,"

"You like red, don't you?" Quinn asked Santana and she nodded, "You can't keep it, I'm afraid. It belongs to the hospital,"

"You alright Quinn?" Mr Schue asked as he came over with Lisa. Quinn nodded at him. Brittany and Finn soon arrived back, Finn covered in scars and cuts but Brittany fixed up with stitches. Santana climbed off Quinn and went to jump on her straight away, almost hitting Finn in the face.

"I'm okay," Brittany told her, "I just had to have a few stitches."

"They sewed your head," Santana said close to tears.

"No, they fixed up the cut," Brittany rephrased, "I'm okay though, don't worry about me,"

"I wasn't worried," Santana lied and put on a brave face, "Legos are so much better than these things," Santana said as she went back to Quinn and Rachel, "These can't build anything cool like houses."

"Aren't you a little old for blocks?" Brittany asked.

"No,"

"I still like them," Quinn told her, "They're awesome to play with; I used to have them all the time when I was a kid."

"I'm brilliant at building," Santana bragged, "Like amazing. How are we going to get back home Quinn?"

"I think it might be best for you all to call your parents," Mr Schue said, "To tell them what happened so they can come and collect you, if none of you can get a life then Lisa and I will be happy to drive you ourselves."

"My parents are working," Santana looked upset.

"That's fine honey," Quinn smiled, "My mom will be happy to bring you back to mine; don't worry about it," Santana nodded and smiled as Quinn dialled her mom's number to explain the situation, "Hey Mom, yeah um...slight problem."

"The bus crashed!" Santana yelled into the phone.

"Ssshh San," Quinn calmed her, "No Mom I'm fine; the bus kind of crashed on the way home, we'll all okay but can you come and pick me and Santana up from the hospital? No, we just got checked out. Brittany needed some stitches but she's fine and San is just a bit shaken up. Yeah, okay, thanks Mom, bye." Quinn hung up and put her phone into her pocket, "She's panicking," she laughed.

"Same with my mom," Brittany said as she came back from talking to her mom on the phone.

"Am I coming home with you?" Santana asked Quinn who nodded, "Good."

"At least no one was seriously hurt," Mr Schue pointed out, "And we didn't lose anyone."

"I don't ever want to go on a bus again," Santana said.

"You'll change your mind in the future," Quinn told her, "You always do."


	30. Slumber Party

Thirty: Slumber Party

"So, what do we think of this new English teacher?" Kurt asked; flopping down onto Quinn's bed with a slice of pepperoni pizza, "He has like really nice hair," Mercedes nodded in agreement and picked up a slice of pizza before sitting next to him. Tina and Rachel were examining each other's nails that they'd just painted whilst Santana sat on the stool in front of a mirror, Quinn and Brittany behind her.

"You have really nice eyebrows," Quinn told Santana as Brittany began brushing her hair, "Move," she shoved Brittany aside and began doing Santana's hair herself.

"Quinn!"

"I do her hair," Quinn told Brittany and began fluffing Santana's hair, "Now; how are we styling it?"

"Um...up and curly," Santana smiled.

"Sounds good babe,"

"I'm not sure about that English teacher Kurt," Rachel mentioned as Brittany went to join them on the bed, "He has a weird chin and I don't particularly like the colour of his eyes either. What do you think Brittany?" Brittany shrugged her shoulders, "Sorry, I forgot you were into girls."

"She's into both," Mercedes nudged Rachel's arm, "Just because Santana is her girlfriend."

"And she had a small crush on Quinn once," Kurt added; winking at Brittany.

"How did you know about that?" Brittany asked him in shock.

"Quinn told me," Brittany turned to glare at Quinn.

"What? Come on Britt, it's nothing to be ashamed of," Quinn told her, "It's cute."

"That was just between us,"

"We all knew," Tina told her, "We thought that it'd be okay." Brittany shook her head and stormed off and downstairs. Santana watched her go and looked up at Quinn who'd stopped doing her hair.

"What's wrong with Brittany?" Santana asked, "She's always so happy."

"She's just a bit upset," Quinn sighed, "Let's do your hair."

"I want to go and see Brittany," Santana got off of her chair and hopped down the stairs, two at a time. Brittany was sitting on the couch with her arms folded, "Britt, Britt!" Santana squealed and bounced onto the couch, flinging her arms round her, "Poke," she began poking her arm but Brittany nudged her away, "What did I do wrong?"

"You didn't do anything wrong," Brittany soon felt bad and hugged her; "You haven't done anything."

"You don't look very happy,"

"I'm just slightly upset,"

"Your hairs gone all messy; you should have Quinn fix it for you, Quinn's good at hair," Santana reached up to try and sort Brittany's hair out, "All messy," she giggled, "It's sticking up, didn't your mom do your hair properly this morning?"

"I do my own hair," Brittany smiled at her.

"How do you style it?"

"Do you want me to show you?"

"But Quinn's done my hair and it'll ruin it,"

"But I need to show you how I style my hair," Santana thought for a moment but nodded and sat really close to Brittany, allowing her to style her hair, "Right; first we tie it up like this yeah?" she nodded, "Do you have a clip?" Santana handed her one that she was keeping in her pocket, "Thank you, now we clip it back like this and then I curl the ends with a pair of curling tongs. It looks so much better on you."

"Think so?" Brittany nodded, "Brittany."

"What is it sweetie?"

"I love you."

"Yeah?" Brittany asked; close to tears and Santana nodded, "I love you too." Santana smiled and hugged Brittany before kissing her hard on the lips.


	31. Deep Talks

Thirty One: Deep Talks

Santana and Brittany walked through the corridors of school, hand in hand, smiling from ear to ear as people walked past staring at them. Santana stayed close at Brittany's side, her head resting on her shoulder, invading her personal space. Brittany didn't mind one bit and allowed her to.

"Hey you two," Quinn sighed as she came over, "What's up?"

"Brittany and me love each other," Santana smiled.

"Great," she nodded and turned to Brittany, "About the slumber party Britt; sorry about..."

"It's fine," Brittany shrugged, "Don't worry about it." She then turned back to Santana.

"Your hair looks good today San; did your mom do it?"

"No, Brittany did," Santana said happily.

"Really?" she nodded, "Great," she whispered.

"I have my special class in four minutes and twenty seven seconds," Santana said; glancing at her watch.

"Yeah, what do you do in that?" Brittany asked her girlfriend.

"Talk about how I've been, play games and practice spelling,"

"Sounds good; I'll miss you," Brittany kissed and hugged her, "Good luck with the spelling."

"I got eight out of ten last time,"

"That's not bad," Brittany told her, "Well done."

"Thank you, I have to go now," Brittany nodded and said goodbye to her as she skipped off to her class. Quinn watched her go; finding it nice that she was being more independent. She watched until she arrived at the classroom, making sure that no one teased her on the way, "Lisa!" Santana screamed as she rushed into the classroom.

"Hey sweetie; you're early," Santana nodded and sat down at the table. There was a small boy who had speech problems sitting across the table, "Johnny is joining us today."

"H...hi I...Johnny," the boy said.

"You speak funny," Santana laughed.

"That isn't very nice, is it?" Lisa asked her and she was silent, "Don't say things like that Santana. How have you been anyway? We're just sharing stories, tell us one."

"I went to Quinn's slumber party and Brittany and I kissed, we're girlfriend and girlfriend now," Lisa didn't really know what to say to that but smiled at her nicely.

"Lesbo," Johnny spat with a small laugh.

"I don't get it," Santana said blankly; not really understanding the shortened version of the word lesbian.

"Don't be mean Johnny," Lisa told the boy.

Meanwhile, Quinn and Brittany both had a free period and were sitting in the library, with their Spanish text books. Brittany had her head down and was working whilst Quinn sat tapping her pencil on the paper.

"Brittany," Quinn finally spoke and Brittany looked up, "You and San; you seem suddenly close all of a sudden,"

"Well, we are dating," she shrugged.

"You were never that close before,"

"I told her I loved her," Quinn's eyes widened, "And she said that she loved me back; think she's finally understanding what dating really means," Quinn smiled at the blonde, "And she let me do her hair for her."

"I'm sorry but...Santana's just been my friend for so long, I don't think I can let her go,"

"You'll always be her best friend Quinn, but now that Santana's mom is being nice to her...she's learning to be more independent and everything,"

"I'll just miss her," Quinn admitted, "That's all."

"I sometimes feel a little jealous of Santana," Brittany confessed, "Because of her autism, the attention that you pay to her; I never got that from you, I sometimes think I screwed it up by telling you that I was in love with you."

"You didn't screw it up Britt; I'm sorry for telling everyone that,"

"It's fine but can I ask you something? You're so mean to people, why are you so different with Santana? She makes you change,"

"My mom has this friend," Quinn sighed, "And she has an eight year old daughter who has autism; she's such a sweetheart and I know that she is younger than San but...well, I babysat her once and at this moment, I wasn't very close with Santana. I was quite mean to her at times and sometimes got a bit annoyed because I didn't understand her illness. After babysitting this little girl though, I realised how harmless autism is and that just because Santana has it, I shouldn't be mean. I realised that I should be nice to her and now, Santana is like my little sister. She's so lovely and I love her to bits."

"I know that Santana and I are together now," Brittany smiled, "But I'm not taking her away from you; you can still be best friends with her."

"I guess; let's just get back to work eh?" Brittany nodded as they went to finish off their Spanish work. Santana came straight to the library when she was finished with Lisa and saw Quinn and Brittany in the corner. She rushed over and knelt in front of them, throwing her bag on the floor, "Hey beautiful," Brittany smiled.

"Hey babe," Quinn put down her book and held out her arms, "Can I have one of your lovely hugs?"

"Course you can have one of my lovely hugs," Santana grinned from ear to ear and pounced on Quinn; hugging her tightly.


	32. Arguments

Thirty Two: Arguments

Quinn watched as Santana and Brittany sat in Glee Club, talking and laughing with each other. She used to love it when Santana ran up and randomly hugged her, when she wanted her to do everything, when she always called to her when she needed something. Now, she'd just been replaced with Brittany.

"Hey guys, I was thinking of having a house party this weekend," Puck said, "My parents are out of town this weekend; what do you say?"

"I don't know," Santana shrugged.

"Brittany?" Puck asked, "Up for a drink?"

"Sure," Brittany smiled, "I'll be up for it."

"Course you would," Quinn mumbled, "Your dad was a raging alcoholic, wasn't he?" Everyone was silent. Brittany stared blankly at Quinn and ran out of the room, Santana watching, "What did I say?"

"That wasn't very nice," Kurt told her.

"It's true though,"

"Even if it is true," Mercedes began, "You shouldn't say it in front of everyone." Quinn turned and looked at Santana who had her head hung and was shifting uncomfortably in her seat, sniffling a little.

"Babe, you okay?" Quinn questioned her friend.

"That was mean," she whispered, "You were mean to Brittany."

"Now look what you did," Rachel scowled. Kurt shook his head at Quinn and left the room to see how Brittany was.

"Baby," Quinn sighed and walked over to Santana who'd tensed up and had her arms folded angrily, "Hey," Quinn knelt in front of her and stroked at her hair, "Look at me; I...I didn't mean to upset Brittany, look at me."

"Don't touch me!" Santana screamed; going into her own bubble.

"You've suddenly changed your tune," Puck told his girlfriend, "And look, she doesn't even want you near her for the first time in her life." Quinn knew that Puck was right. She sighed deeply and stepped back from Santana, not knowing if she'd ever be able to trust her again.

"Babe, you're my best friend," Quinn sobbed to Santana with tears in her eyes.

"Have I upset her?" Santana asked Rachel who'd arrived at the scene. Rachel shrugged her shoulders as Quinn left the room in tears, "I don't get it," she whispered to Rachel once Quinn had gone. Rachel had never met someone with autism and she didn't hang out with Santana that much but she tried her best to understand her and get through to her.

"Don't get what?" she asked simply.

"Q...Quinn's my best friend but Brittany's my girlfriend; I don't get it."

"What don't you get?" Rachel asked again.

"Who to go to; they're both upset and angry with me,"

"No they're not," Rachel comforted her, "They're not upset and angry with you; Quinn's upset but I think she's just upset with herself,"

"How can you be upset with yourself?" Santana questioned, "That's weird."

"Well, maybe you can get Quinn and Brittany to be friends again,"

"How?"

"You're smart aren't you? I'm sure you'll figure it out, you're lovely and you're loved by both of them," Santana smiled at Rachel, "Can I have a hug?" Santana didn't answer but got up and ran out of the room to try and find her friends, "Alright then," Rachel laughed and stood up to go back over to everyone else. She found them both on a bench, Quinn talking but Brittany remaining silent.

"Um...Rachel said that I'm smart," Santana said as the two blondes turned to look at her, "And that you both love me; and that I can get you both to be friends again,"

"Rachel said that, did she?" Quinn giggled and Santana nodded, "Come here you; let me talk to you," Santana nodded and sat on the bench really close to Quinn, "Rachel has a good heart saying that but after what happened, I don't know."

"Did I do something wrong?"

"No sweetie; it isn't you at all, it's me. I said something about Brittany that wasn't very nice,"

"I know," Santana nodded, "That was mean."

"I know it was so it's my fault,"

"Why did you say it?" Brittany asked; overhearing the conversation, "You know I don't like people knowing about that."

"I'm sorry; I just felt jealous of your relationship with San, I felt as if I was losing my best friend,"

"I'm still your best friend," Santana smiled at Quinn.

"I know but I felt like I was losing you; I love that you're getting more independent but I don't ever want to let you go babe, I love you too much."

"We both love you," Brittany told her girlfriend.

"See, popular girl," Quinn giggled.

"Are we cool?" Santana asked.

"Course we're cool," Quinn hugged her and turned to Brittany, "Forgive me Britt?"

"For San's sake," Brittany smiled and stood up; pulling them both in for a tight squeeze.

"Brittany?" Santana asked her girlfriend, "Can we go on a kissing date this weekend?"

**Okay so I was thinking of ending this story but I've decided that enough of the jealousy now and I will carry the story on with Brittany and Santana taking their relationship one step further and seeing how things go with dating and Santana's autism. There will be lots of Brittana coming your way!**


	33. Brittany's House

Thirty Three: Brittany's House

"So, this is my house," Brittany smiled as she and Santana walked through the doors of her house. Santana hovered nervously at the corner; she'd never been to Brittany's house before ad she wasn't keen on new places, "You alright?"

"I've never been here before," Santana shook her head.

"You'll be fine; we're dating now, you need to come to my house sooner or later," Santana slowly made her way into the living room, fiddling on the ends of her shirt sleeves and looking around. Brittany followed and watched her for a bit, not sure what to do, "Let's go upstairs," she said and placed a hand on Santana's shoulder. Santana screamed and grabbed a lamp, quickly turning to face Brittany, "Sorry, I...I didn't mean to scare you."

"I...I've never been here before," she sniffled, "I've never been here; where am I?" Brittany edged closer but she chucked the lamp causing it to smash onto the floor into a million pieces. Brittany quickly raced for the phone and dialled Quinn's number.

"Pick up, pick up, pick up," she muttered under her breath and Quinn soon answered, "Quinn; it's Brittany!"

"Oh hey Britt, how's the date going?"

"Terrible, Santana is scared because she's never been here before and now she's crying and won't let me near her,"

"Alright, I'll be straight over; just try and calm her down,"

"I'll try," Brittany promised and hung up; going back into the living room. Santana was crouched next to the couch, crying and rocking back and forth to try and calm herself down. Brittany took a deep breath and slowly knelt next to her, "Santana; it's me, Brittany."

"Brittany?"

"Yeah, it's me," the blonde soothed, "Calm down yeah? Quinn will be here in a minute,"

"Quinn?" Brittany smiled and nodded. The front door was already unlocked so Quinn came straight in when she arrived, "Quinn," Santana beamed once she saw her friend. Quinn smiled and knelt down next to the autistic girl, rubbing at her back soothingly to try and calm her down.

"Hey babe, what have you been doing eh?"

"I don't know what happened," Brittany shrugged, "She looked quite nervous and scared and then it just came on all of a sudden."

"That happens," Quinn reassured her, "She gets scared in strange, new places. I thought she'd be okay here if she was with you at least. San, sweetie; are you okay?"

"N...No," Santana shook her head; crying.

"Let's get you into the kitchen," Quinn helped Santana up from the floor, "Wash those watery eyes and get you a drink, yeah?" Santana managed a nod as Quinn took her into the kitchen, with Brittany following close behind. Quinn sat Santana down at the table and got her a glass of water before going to dab at her tears.

"Here," Brittany offered Santana the cookie jar, "Have a cookie; it'll make you feel better." Santana nodded but didn't take one, "You can take one; go ahead." Santana reached in and took a cookie, taking a bite.

"They're good," she smiled.

"I know," Brittany nodded; munching on her own cookie.

"I'll pay for the damages Britt," Quinn promised her friend, "Don't worry."

"It's fine," Brittany told her, "It's just a stupid lamp; it doesn't matter."

"But still..."

"Quinn, it's fine," Brittany reassured her, "San didn't mean it."

"Are you sure?" Brittany nodded as Quinn knelt down in front of Santana, "San, listen to me," Santana looked at Quinn, "Don't do something like that again yeah? That wasn't a very nice thing to do, I know you were scared and I know you panicked."

"It's new here,"

"I know it is," Quinn comforted, "But it's the house of your girlfriend isn't it? If you two are dating, you need to go to each other's houses. Now, Brittany is here with you and she'll look after you but you will soon get used to it here alright?"

"Alright," she whispered.

"Now, are you two going to be okay? Do you need any help cleaning up?"

"We'll be fine," Brittany smiled and offered another cookie to Santana.

"Please don't give her too many of them," Quinn said, "Her dad won't be very happy if he finds out she's had loads of sugary cookies."

"Last one, I promise," Brittany promised Quinn.

"Alright, I'll see you both very soon," Quinn hugged Santana and then hugged Brittany and whispered in ear, "You'll be fine but just call me if something else happens." Brittany nodded and hugged her back as Quinn went to leave the house.

"You okay now?" she asked Santana who nodded.

"Can I have another cookie?"

"Just one more," Brittany smiled at her, "Do you want to go upstairs?"

"To your bedroom?" Brittany nodded, "Sure," Santana finished off her last cookie and followed Brittany up the stairs to her bedroom, "Your bedroom is blue," she pointed out; flopping down onto the bed.

"I know," Brittany shut the door and sat next to her; kissing her cheek and cuddling up to her, "I'm so glad that you're my girlfriend," she whispered.

"Me too," Santana smiled and gave her a kiss.


	34. Baby Talks

Thirty Four: Baby Talks

"I want a baby," Quinn's head shot up when Santana said that to her. Santana was round her house and she was just cooking a roast meal for the both of them seeing as Judy was out. As she was out for the entire night, Mikey had come over with Santana and was curled up by the fire in the living room, "Like a real one, like my mom had."

"Do you?" Quinn asked as she covered both plates in a puddle of gravy.

"Yeah, with Brittany because I love her and you need to have a baby with the person you love,"

"Well, aren't you and Brittany a little too young for a baby?" Quinn asked; taking the plates of food through to the dining room table. Santana followed and sat down in front of her plate, shaking her head, "You're still in school; besides, a baby is a big responsibility."

"But I'm good with Lucia, Mom said so,"

"But she's your sister; not your daughter,"

"I still want one,"

"You're sure about this?" Quinn giggled and Santana nodded, taking a bite out of a potato, "Like I said; you're still in school," Quinn smiled and poured some apple juice for her, "Who would have the baby then? You or Brittany?"

"Brittany because having a baby hurts,"

"You're willing to put your girlfriend through pain whilst you just sit back and watch," Santana nodded, "Oh I do love you San; you keep me entertained. When you're older though, you can definitely think about it eh?"

"Why can't we have a baby now?"

"Because you're too young,"

"Felix and Lucia are too young, Mikey is too young; we're old."

"Well I wouldn't say we're old," Quinn giggled as she ate her dinner, "We're not young, we're just not old enough to look after a kid. You know how getting a baby works though, don't you?" Santana nodded, "Well, you and Brittany will have to find a man won't you? Because you both can't make a baby."

"Is it because we're both girls?" Quinn nodded, "But that's not fair."

"Life isn't fair but if you want a baby, you'll need to either adopt or find a man."

"I want a baby with Brittany,"

"San, you're not listening," Quinn laughed and shook her head at her, "You aren't listening babe; you two are both too young for a baby now but when you are older, you can think or adopting or something yeah?"

"I don't understand," Santana whined as she fidgeted in her seat, refusing to touch her food.

"Eat your dinner," Quinn told her, "It'll go cold otherwise." Santana was about to answer back when the doorbell went, "Stay right here," Quinn told her and went to answer it. Mikey was already up at the window to see who was there. Quinn answered it and saw Puck standing on the doorstep, "Hey Puck; what do you want?"

"Dropping by to see my girlfriend," he kissed her cheek, "Did I come at a bad time?"

"Kind of, San's here and we're just having dinner,"

"Ah sorry princess, I didn't realise you were babysitting,"

"Shut up," Quinn laughed, "Felix is at a friend's house and her parents are taking Lucia to the paediatrician, apparently San got bored last time so I have to look after her."

"Are you alone?"

"Yeah, Mom's out," Puck just shrugged his shoulders and let himself in, "Yeah; do come in," Quinn said sarcastically, "San!" Quinn called as she went back into the dining room, "Puck's here." Santana nodded and Quinn saw that her dinner was still untouched, "San; you've hardly eaten anything, you said that you were hungry."

"I am; I want pudding,"

"No; no pudding until you've eaten this," Santana shook her head, "San, what is wrong with you this evening? You like chicken, don't you?" She shook her head, "You told me you did earlier and you've eaten it before."

"I want pudding,"

"Finish this first," Quinn sighed; beginning to get annoyed.

"Hate you," she muttered under her breath.

"Don't say that," Quinn scolded.

"I do hate you,"

"San!" Puck just stood awkwardly in the living room, listening as the two best friends argued over something that he thought was quite stupid, "You can't handle a baby, not at your age," Puck's eyes widened once he heard that line and decided not to question it, "Stop it and eat your dinner."

"I don't want my fucking dinner!" Puck heard Santana scream.

"Language," Quinn warned her, "You can't always get what you want San and this is over something stupid anyway; just calm down and eat your dinner, you're getting yourself in a state. If you carry on, you're going to make yourself sick."

Puck took a seat in the living room and propped his feet up onto the coffee table when he heard a sudden scream from Quinn.

"Quinn?" he called through. Getting up, he rushed into the dining room to see Quinn clutching her bleeding nose, "Fucks sake, are you alright?" he asked running over to check on his girlfriend. Quinn faintly nodded as Puck tipped her head back.

"I'm fine," she managed and turned to Santana, gesturing to the door, "Upstairs," Santana stayed where she was, "Get upstairs!"

"I'm hungry though,"

"Tough, you had your chance now get upstairs!" Santana climbed down from the table and shoved past Puck and Quinn before rushing up the stairs as fast as she could. They both jumped as they heard the door slam loudly. Quinn suddenly broke down into tears.

"Hey what's wrong? Does it really hurt?" Puck asked.

"No, I just don't know what's gotten into her lately. She was never like this with me before,"

"Her time of the month?" Puck questioned.

"I don't know, can...can you just go?" Puck looked shocked, "Sorry, I can clean myself up but I think I should talk to San," he nodded and gave her a kiss before going to leave the house. Quinn went to grab a tissue from the kitchen to try and stop the bleeding a bit before taking out the green bowl with the monkeys patterned around it and filling it with some ice cream. Her nose soon stopped bleeding and she took the bowl up to Santana, opening the door and seeing her lying on the bed, facing the wall, "Hey grumpy guts," Quinn joked and sat down on the edge of the bed, wrapping her arms round her neck and tickling her, "Talk to me."

"Go away," Santana mumbled.

"No, where's that smile? Come on," Quinn tickled her again, "I know it's in there somewhere."

"Hmm ice cream," Santana laughed as she sniffed.

"Here," Quinn held the monkey bowl out to her, "Pudding for you, in your special bowl."

"For me?" Quinn nodded and handed her a spoon as Santana sat upright, "My favourite. Sorry about your nose Quinn,"

"It's fine, just a bit of blood," Quinn tapped Santana on the nose as she ate her ice cream, "Can I have some of that?" Quinn dipped her finger into it and licked it, getting a playful slap from Santana, "So no more of this baby talk eh?"

"I still want one,"

"When you're older babe," Quinn winked at her.


	35. To the Future

Thirty Five: To the Future

"Brittany, I want a baby," Santana told her girlfriend at school the next day. Brittany slowly and nervously glanced towards Santana with a small smile. Santana was just standing there casually, smiling at her, "Quinn said only when we're older though."

"Where did this come from sweetie?" Brittany asked and kissed her on the lips.

"Because I love you and I was helping Mom with Lucia; we should have a baby like Lucia,"

"I'd love to make a family with you San," Brittany kissed her again and held her hands, "But we are still in school; Quinn's right about waiting until we're older eh?"

"Brittany, are you a virgin?" Brittany laughed and shook her head at Santana, "Hmmm, I learnt that a virgin is someone who hasn't had S...E...X before," She said, spelling out the word, "My cousin told me because Mom had mentioned the word and I didn't know what it meant that well."

"Well, you are right but I am not a virgin I'm afraid,"

"I am," Santana smiled proudly, "I learn lots of new words off my cousins."

"Naughty words," Brittany giggled, "Fancy coming back to my place? Or do you need to be somewhere," Santana shook her head, "Come back to mine then?" she nodded, "Awesome; come on," Brittany wrapped an arm round Santana's shoulder and the two of them walked out of school, "Mom's out tonight so it'll just be the two of us; is that okay?"

"That's cool," Santana nodded.

"So, tell me about this baby," Brittany laughed, "What would it look like? Boy or girl?"

"Girl because girls are pretty and like pink," Santana told her, "And um...we'd find a man like Puck and ask Quinn if we can borrow him," Brittany laughed, "And you would have the baby and then I will help look after it."

"Is that the plan for the future?" Santana nodded, "I don't think Quinn will let us borrow Puck though, we may need to find our own man." They arrived at Brittany's house and Brittany unlocked the door, letting Santana go inside before following her and shutting the door behind her, "Used to my place then?" Santana nodded and sat down on the couch. Brittany went to get some cookies and milk before coming to sit next to her, "So, who would carry this baby?"

"You,"

"Why not you?" Brittany asked; munching on a cookie.

"It hurts,"

"Any other reasons?"

"Nope," Santana shook her head, "Just that."

"Well, how about I promise you that I give you a baby when we're older?" Brittany asked and Santana nodded, "And we can start a family."

"That'll be nice," Santana smiled, "When we're older though, like in the future,"

"Like in the future," Brittany repeated and picked up the glasses of milk, handing one over to Santana, "So, to the future," she smiled and clanked glasses with Santana.

"To the future, why do people do that?"

"What?"

"Clank glasses,"

"I'm not really sure to be honest with you," Brittany giggled, "It's what people do at celebrations like weddings, I'm not sure why."

"Brittany," Brittany looked at her and sipped at her milk, "I can't wait for the future."

"Neither can I."

**Only one more chapter to go! **


	36. Epilogue

Epilogue

Santana and Brittany were now twenty six and had been married for a year. Brittany was in her last month of pregnancy and was tidying the house; it had been taking a while as she was putting everything in line and making sure that everything was neat. Although Santana's autism would be cured, she had matured a lot over the years. Quinn had set up a councillor that specialised in stuff like this that she saw every two weeks.

"You okay?" Santana asked Brittany as she dusted photo frames that stood on top of the TV. Brittany nodded faintly, her hands resting on her stomach, "I like this photo of us," Santana laughed, "The one of us singing karaoke at Quinn's birthday party; do you remember that? It was a Friday, 18th of October."

"Yeah I remember it," Brittany smiled, "It was a fun day."

"It was," Santana nodded. Brittany suddenly winced and clutched her stomach as she felt a sharp pain shoot through her. Santana dropped the photo and screamed as the glass shattered across the floor, "The picture!"

"San, something hurts,"

"The picture!"

"San, I think it's time," Brittany gasped; tears filling her eyes. Santana looked towards Brittany but her mind was still focused on the shattered photo frame, "San, sweetie, ignore it. We can get a new one, exactly the same."

"What do I do?" she asked in a quiet voice.

"Right, don't panic," Brittany breathed through the pain, "Just go and ring Quinn." Santana took one more look at the photo frame that lay broken on the floor, "San, I promise you that we will get another one and we will clean the mess up, just please go and ring Quinn." Santana nodded faintly and ran for the phone; remembering the number off by heart and giving Quinn a quick ring.

"Hello," Quinn answered.

"Q...Quinn," Santana stuttered; beginning to shake, "I...I don't know what to do; the photo frame broke, Brittany's having the baby, I'm in the hallway."

"Whoa now, calm down babe," Quinn said; still using her same childhood nickname, "Brittany's having the baby?"

"Y...Yeah,"

"Right, I'm on my way," Quinn promised, "Don't be scared," she added before hanging up the phone.

"Quinn's on her way," Santana informed Brittany; going back into the living room, "Does it hurt that much?" Brittany nodded and Santana reached out to give Brittany's hand a tight squeeze, "I told Quinn about the frame."

"I'll buy you a new one," Brittany promised her and smiled, breathing deeply.

"Brittany," Santana got up and rushed out of the room quickly. Brittany was about to yell for her but Santana soon came back with a stuffed monkey, "I've had this ever since I was six years old, I would like our baby to have it," she handed it to Brittany who smiled and gave her a kiss. Quinn arrived minutes later and rushed over to Brittany, kissing her head.

"Thank god you're here; it hurts so bad."

"I know," Quinn soothed, "Just breathe. My car's outside, so we'll get you to the hospital yeah?" Brittany nodded and stood up with Santana, "You doing okay?" Quinn asked Santana and gave her a hug. She nodded as Brittany placed a hand on her shoulder, "Come on; Brittany needs you."

Brittany was at the hospital and in the delivery room in no time. Quinn and Santana stayed by her side as she screamed; sweat streaming down her forehead and her hands squeezing Santana and Quinn tightly.

"Remember when you first told me you wanted this kid," Quinn told Santana and kissed her cheek. She nodded.

"It looks so gross," she said once she saw the head.

"That's your baby," Quinn laughed and dabbed at Brittany's forehead, "Come on B; you're doing well."

"I love you Brittany," Santana told her wife and kissed her cheek as Brittany continued to push, "You can do it."

"You're doing this next time," Brittany screamed at her.

"There may not be a next time," Santana pointed out. Brittany gave one more big push and soon a baby's cry filled the air. Brittany collapsed onto the pillow and Quinn and Santana looked up to see the nurse holding a beautiful baby girl, "You did it," Santana yelled with excitement and hugged her.

"Here is your daughter," the nurse smiled as she handed the baby over to Brittany.

"She's lovely," Santana smiled as Brittany cradled the newborn in a pink blanket, "What are we going to call her?"

"I'll let you decide that," Brittany said, "Any names for our little girl?"

"I like the name Carly," Santana mentioned.

"Carly, it is," Brittany looked down at the baby, "I like it; it fits perfectly. Do you want to hold our daughter?" Santana nodded and Brittany carefully passed her over to the Latina. After babysitting her sister numerous times, Santana knew just how to hold her and looked like a professional.

"You did good," Santana smiled at her wife, "And we finally have our family."

"Yeah," Brittany whispered, "And San?" Santana looked up from Carly, "I promise you that I'll buy you a new photo frame as soon as we get home."

**END!**

**I am so glad that people liked this story, thank you for reading, favouriting, alerting and reviewing and thanks for all the people who put their ideas in. **


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